Mr. Gerry Bennett:

Before I deal with the questions I shall make a couple of preliminary remarks about amalgamation and so on. As we said earlier, we do not have the authority to sanction an amalgamation at primary level. That is the duty of the patron who is the bishop. We are the trustees and are not the patron. We do not have that authority at all. We are part of a process for determining the future of a school. As trustees, we have absolutely no authority to instigate or decide on the matter.

The overarching principle that should permeate all considerations is the educational needs and benefits of young people. That principle should permeate all considerations regarding proposed reconfigurations. The objective of an amalgamation is to provide an enhanced learning environment for the students, in any situation. The students and their needs should be at the base of this matter. Let us take one aspect at a time, if we can disentangle them.

First, for those who are not aware of the campus. The North Monastery campus has three schools, Scoil Mhuire Fatima primary school, the Aonad Gaelach gaelscoil and the North Monastery, an English speaking secondary school. All three schools are located on the North Monastery campus.

With regard to Scoil Mhuire Fatima North Monastery, the chronology is as follows. We do not normally go to a board of management looking for an amalgamation. That is not what we do, as trustees. Normally, a board of management would come to us and we would provide advice and assistance to the board of management in terms of progression, how best to improve their school, if that is the case, how best to communicate the good practice of their school, etc. Generally speaking, we do not go to a board of management to look for change. It is the other way around. A board of management will normally come to the trustees. That is the universal situation. There may be one or two exceptions but I do not know of any.

The board of management of Scoil Mhuire Fatima North Mon came to us, as trustees, and applied to first introduce enfant streams to its school. It came to us, in the first instance. We wrote to the patron in support of the request. The patron requested that we consult with other trustees at that time. Subsequently and very shortly afterwards, the patron turned down the request for the Scoil Mhuire Fatima school to become co-educational or take in enfants. That is the decision for the patron. The reason being, we assume, that it would affect the other two primary schools located in close proximity to the school - St. Vincent's school and the Presentation school which are both girls schools. We assume that was the reason given.

The patron said "No" so we turned down the request. We requested a further consideration and the patron requested that we would consult further around the provision of Catholic education in the area. Therefore, we supported the school, went to the patron, but the patron said the other trustees in the area should be consulted. The four trustees in the area are ERST, the Sisters of Charity, the Presentation Sisters and the diocese itself. The negotiations, or discussions, got under way. Then a proposal was drawn up and presented to the board of management of the four schools, at the same time, by the four sets of trustees for discussion among their boards of management and parents. The boards of management were asked to supervise the consultation process with their own teachers, board, parents and school communities.

It was given a fairly short timeframe - I think it was 7 February - to come back to the various trustees with their view on the proposal, presented to them as a proposal by the trustees.

The trustees do not have the authority to make a decisions. We were there as part of meeting with Scoil Mhuire Fatima. The other trustees met with their schools at the very same time on the very same day. The parents and the board of management of Scoil Mhuire Fatima rejected our proposal and we withdrew the proposal which was up for consideration by the school. After that, Scoil Mhuire Fatima decided to announce the introduction of infants to the school in September 2014. This was not in keeping with what the teacher unions, the CPSMA, the patrons and the trustees had agreed in terms of how to change the status of a school. There is a process for doing that. There was a meeting with the patron and the boards of management of the four schools. Scoil Mhuire Fatima has since withdrawn the proposal of taking in children into junior infants. The patron has convened a meeting of the boards of management of the three schools and requested the chairs to meet to discuss further proposals. ERST will consider its support for any proposal that evolves from these meetings. That is the chronology of what happened.