Brendan Ryan (Dublin North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome today's presentations. In my experience, it is probably the first time at a committee hearing that all of the stakeholders have broadly supported what has been proposed, which is good. Has Mr. Stack, as part of the further consultation, which is to be welcomed, heard anything that would suggest the method could be modified or is it too early in the process to suggest that?

Mr. Goff has expressed the concern of members of his organisation that the proposal could be used to reduce resources. Has there been any analysis on whether it would result in the provision of less resources, the same level or more? Could it result in greater resources being required?

Are there any implications of the use of the new term "support teacher" for people who are currently working in this area - there are two types of work - and are there any implications for job descriptions?

I am also interested in clarification on the 15% reduction. Is it a case of the numbers remaining the same and the number of students increasing thereby resulting in an effective 15% reduction? Is that really what we are talking about?