Ms Brigid Quilligan:

I agree with the comment on community colleges. I am from Killarney and two of the best schools in Killarney are community colleges. They provide the best opportunities and variety of opportunities for students.

Traditionally, Traveller children would have been routed into places which had no academic expectations of them. There was a presumption which persists that they would not do a junior certificate examination and they would not achieve anything or go to college via any route. That is where my organisation comes from.

We agree with integration. Traveller children must have their ethnicity and culture respected and shown in the curriculum in order for them to feel safe, supported, wanted and included. I want an educational environment where they do not have to hide their identity and do not have to pretend not to be a Traveller in order to succeed. That is what I want an integration system to comprise of. I want children to be valued and for them to know their history rather than have it beaten out of them which we know has happened in the past.