A WEXFORD primary school has claimed a victory in landmark judicial proceedings taken against the Department of Education, which ordered it to enrol two boys with autism when only one place was available.

The proceedings arose from a decision of Scoil Mhuire, Coolcotts, last year to inform the parents of a ten-year-old boy that there was no place available for him.

The boy was fourth on a waiting list for a place at the Wexford town school which provides specialist education for autistic children.

The boy's parents appealed to a committee established under Section 29 of the Education Act 1998 which allows appeals on behalf of children whose school enrolment applications have been refused.

The committee ruled that the child's placing on the list was unreasonable and the Department of Education ordered Scoil Mhuire to enrol him.

As a result the parents of a four-yearold child, who had been offered a place because he was at the top of the waiting list, were told that their child could not start at the school.

They also took a Section 29 appeal which was heard by a committee of different people. That action also resulted in the Department of Education ordering the school to enrol the four-year-old.

The board of Scoil Mhuire then instituted High Court proceedings seeking the quashing of the Department's decision.

It also sought orders that the Section 29 committees had no jurisdiction to entertain the appeals and acted in breach of natural and constitutional justice.

Scoil Mhuire claimed that it did not refuse to enrol the ten-year-old, but acted within its enrolment policy and the appeals committee was not entitled to disregard that policy.

Heading into the fifth day of the hearing of the case at the High Court recently, the Department of Education decided to settle and Principal Pat Goff said it is very important for the school that they have been found to have acted correctly.

'The Department granted us everything we asked for, they backed down completely on everything,' said Mr. Goff.

He said that the idea of the appeal committee is a good one, but that in the case of their school, and others, the committees had been taking other factors into account and effectively changing the valid, constitutional enrolment policy of the school.

A spokesman for the Department of Education said it does not comment on individual cases, but confirmed that a settlement has been agreed between the parties in this case.

It's understood that the Government will be picking up the significant bill for the High Court proceedings, believed to be in excess of ¤250,000.

Despite the landmark action, the four-year-old and ten-year-old at the centre of the proceedings have both been attending Scoil Mhuire since last September as extra resources were made available to the school by the department to accommodate them.

Section 29 appeals were also taken in relation to four other boys who did not receive places in Scoil Mhuire last year. Two were later taken into the school as the resources became available and two more are on the waiting list for next September.

However, following the judicial review action against the Department, the school is expecting all future Section 29 committees to stick rigidly to the school's enrolment policy when considering appeals, not other, unrelated factors.