The Right to an Education in Ireland: The Gap Between Access and Enforceable Standards

Keira Pearce

The Constitutional Right to Education: 

Ireland, much like many other states today, is committed to ensuring that its citizens have equal access to an education throughout the most formative years of their lives, up to the age of eighteen.  This right is embedded in its legal framework, through both statute and the Constitution.  Article 42 of Bunreachtna hÉireann gives recognition to the central role of education, by requiring that children receive a ‘certain minimum education’ and by providing for free primary education.  This is furthered by Section 6 of the Education Act 1998, which sets out the right of equality of access to education and the right to a quality of education which meets the needs of the children.  

Yet, while both the Constitution and statute emphasise the importance of education and ensuring that everyone has equal access to it, neither of these sources of law sets out the standards that school infrastructure and resources must meet in order to adequately protect these rights.  Funding for new school buildings or renovations is handled by the Department of Education through capital funding programmes.  However, decisions on allocations of this funding are subject to various rigorous procedural stages, as well as being subject to budgetary constraints.  Therefore, as the quality and maintenance of school infrastructure is dealt with through an administrative procedure rather than a legal procedure, the process is more difficult to regulate and enforce.   

The Reality of School Infrastructure and Facilities: 

The consequences of this can unfortunately be seen in the realities that many students and teachers face almost every day of their lives.  Across Ireland, students and teachers are expected to work and learn in buildings affected by dampness, mould, leaking roofs, and inadequate heating.  Many of these schools were constructed decades, if not centuries, ago, and struggle to keep up with the demands of modern education, such as rapidly increasing numbers.  Overcrowding is another issue brought on by this lack of adequate school infrastructure, as schools are attempting to accommodate many more pupils than these inadequate buildings can cater to.   

These problems reflect a wider structural issue in the education system.  In 2018, it was reported that over 1000 schools were waiting on approval or completion of building works.  The result of this is that many schools are reliant on temporary accommodation such as prefabs to house their students.  While the use of these would be excusable on genuinely short-term bases, many schools use these as a long-term solution to capacity problems.  Government spending on temporary accommodation in schools had risen by €12 million between 2019 and 2023, with 563 schools using prefabs funded by the government.  As of 2025, the government was spending on average €28 million each year on prefabs for schools across the country.  This figure does not even include the prefabs that schools have funded themselves.  Additionally, these alarming statistics have followed a pledge by Ministers that a new school building programme would put an end to the long-term use of prefabs in schools.  This promise was made in 2015, and eleven years later, no changes are evident in the use of temporary accommodation in schools.  In fact, the numbers indicate that the situation is worsening.   

The Human Impact for Students and Teachers: 

More impactful than the structural shortcomings of these buildings, however, is the real human impact felt by the teachers and students who are required to function daily in these environments as a result of the regulatory shortcomings. Research has shown that the presence of dampness and mould in schools is associated with increased risk of developing respiratory health conditions.  This also has an adverse effect on attendance, as it was found that student absenteeism can increase by 10% to 20% solely due to respiratory conditions brought on by poor ventilation in schools.  Furthermore, a report compiling evidence from numerous studies found that various environmental factors in schools, such as ventilation, natural lighting, and temperature, can significantly affect students’ ability to concentrate and learn.  It is clear that inadequate school infrastructure can directly impact education.  This arguably raises questions of fairness regarding equal access to education, as students educated in substandard buildings are still expected to sit the same national standardised examinations as their peers who have benefited from modern facilities and resources.   

While the formative years of many students’ lives are spent in these conditions, the daily working lives of teachers are also affected.  They are faced with the same health risks as students, often for longer periods of time, as many may have spent decades working in these buildings.  Studies conducted in the UK between 2004 and 2016 found that, when deciding whether to remain in the profession, the conditions of school infrastructure were often a more significant factor for teachers than salary.  In many other professions, working in such environments with dampness, mould, poor ventilation, and inadequate heating would likely come under the blanket of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005, which aims to protect the rights of employees to work in a place that is safe and does not pose risks to their health.   

The Scope of this Act and the Gap in the Framework: 

In theory, schools fall within the ambit of this Act.  However, the responsibility is more fragmented in the context of schools than in other workplaces.  Boards of Management are responsible for ensuring that teachers are safe in their workplace, and consequently, that students are also safe.  However, they have limited powers when the issues concern large infrastructural problems in the school building.  The construction and refurbishment of school facilities fall under the authority of the Department of Education.  This inevitably complicates the process, as the school is then subject to the aforementioned lengthy centralised procedures of approving new school buildings.    

This regulatory structure also exposes another gap between the recognition of the right to education in the Irish Constitution and the enforceability of that right.  While constitutional rights in Ireland are legally enforceable as the supreme law of the state, there is a lack of clarity surrounding the right to education.  The wording of the Constitution requires a ‘certain minimum’ education.  However, it does not set out what this minimum level or standard is, nor does the Education (Welfare) Act 2000.  Nor does it clarify what is taken into consideration in this minimum acceptable level, such as the quality of school facilities.  Schools across Ireland, particularly in rural areas, are therefore left to operate in substandard conditions as a result of this gap in legal and regulatory frameworks.   

In order to address this, clearer standards are needed for school facilities.  Additionally, in order to make these standards more easily enforceable, decentralised decision-making for new school building approvals would remove the centralised and extensive procedure.  If the right to education is to be fully realised, it must extend beyond physical access and consider the conditions in which children and teachers must learn and work every day.