Ruane 'Family Holiday' Absence Defended

The Stormont Assembly's Education Minister has admitted breaching her own department's guidelines.

She took her 12-year-old daughter out of school for a 'holiday'.

Ms Ruane (pictured here with school children on a local visit) confirmed a newspaper report that she had breached the guidelines on school attendance by taking her daughter on the five-day trip earlier this month.

The girl missed three days of school when she was taken away by the Minister on an NI government-sponsored trip to Cyprus.

However, she refused to be bowed by the scandal and instead attacked the report and added that her daughter, who attends a school in the Irish Republic, should not be "brought into political battles".

She said: "This is a dreadful attack on my family. It is not right that my daughter is being discussed like this.

"I paid for my daughter. She missed three days of school but I am a mother as well as a Minister and I will decide the priorities in relation to my family," she said, despite clearly underlined instructions to other parents that keeping their children away from school was wrong.

Ms Ruane was in Nicosia from May 7-11 to speak about diversity and equality in education at a seminar.

The event was organised by the Reconstruction and Resettlement Council (RRC) which is tasked with finding solutions to key issues post-reunification of Cyprus.

The Minister also visited a school that caters for children from Greek Cypriot, Turkish Cypriot and other communities.

A Department of Education spokesman admitted: "Unlike other ministers, this was the Education Minister's first visit outside Ireland or Britain.

"The Department of Education incurred costs of approximately £1,220 in respect of flights for the minister and her private secretary, and incidentals such as airport car parking and gifts for dignitaries.

"Accommodation and other costs were paid by the Cypriot authorities. The Minister is not prepared to comment on her daughter who is a minor."

However, Caitriona Ruane confirmed the report in the Irish News which said the trip fell outside holidays in the Republic, where her daughter attends school.

The Republic's National Educational Welfare Board "strongly advises" parents not to take their child out of school for holidays during term time.

In parallel with that advisory, the Northern Ireland Department of Education's website states that "the majority of family holidays taken during term time should be categorised as unauthorised absence."

The document entitled 'School Attendance: Absence Recording by Schools' goes on to state that schools can authorise a family holiday during term time if there are "very exceptional circumstances".

(BMcC)