Mr. Ferdia Kelly:

Senator Moran raised issues to do with the book rental scheme. As with all such issues, as an umbrella group for management in voluntary secondary schools and at school level, we advocate engagement with our colleagues in the National Parents Council Post-Primary and with our colleagues in the Department of Education and Skills. We also advocate that similar collaborative work should be done at local level such as conversations around book schemes, uniforms and any other issues that arise. I will explain to Senator Moran that boards of management in our sector are obliged under the articles of management to issue an agreed report from each meeting. Mr. Jim Moore made the point about communication. We remind the boards of management repeatedly about the importance of an agreed report being issued to the parents' council and to the teachers. Likewise, we have issued a template to the wider school community for the reporting of annual school accounts. We remind schools that this should be regular reporting. We participate in communication processes, as we did in April with the National Parents' Council, as mentioned by Mr. Don Myers. We were signatories to the document that went to all schools seeking a review of the uniform policy.