Mr. Clive Byrne:

Absolutely. In the voluntary secondary sector and community and comprehensive schools, the board is the employer. In the education and training board, ETB, sector, the board is a sub-committee of the ETB, which is the employer, so there are slight differences in how it works. The role, structures and supports made by the board are absolutely based in the community and should be seen to represent the parents, staff and interests of trustees. The skills built up by many councillors on the boards in the ETB sector schools are certainly put to extremely good use. Those interview skills count for nothing if there is only one applicant for a position, which was the default in many schools at one time. When a post arose, a meeting took place and often there would only be one applicant for the post. There would be no need for the finely honed skills of colleagues. Deputy Daly referred to clusters of schools and Mr. Cottrell has a more nuanced view on this. In discussions I have had with senior officials in the Department, I queried why up to eight or nine years ago there were 13 primary schools on Achill Island, given the level of structure in a school required to make it operate.
Another Deputy asked about the role of bodies in dealing with the Department of Education and Skills with our proposals. The teacher education section in the Department has the closest of links with the professional associations at the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals, NAPD, and we routinely meet those officials to discuss issues of concern. At the height of the good times, there were over 500 teachers seconded from schools to the professional development services but that went to fewer than 100 at one stage. We had close involvement in leadership development for schools and when times were good, there would have been up to 16 full-time people involved in that programme, delivering at primary and post-primary level, but the initiative is much diminished.
Recently there have been very fruitful meetings between the senior officials in the Department and us with a view to meeting the needs with a stream of newly appointed principals. There is also consideration of how to create a cohort of individuals applying for principalship, as in our sector the desirable job is the position of deputy principal rather than principal, with a far higher rate of applications for positions of deputy principal, depending on the context, size and location of school. There have been fruitful discussions in this regard and I am hopeful, particularly regarding the point made by Mr. Ward regarding coaching, mentoring and supports for existing principals and principals in situ, that there will shortly be proposals emerging to allow that happen.