Ms Brigid McManus:

It is a challenge for anybody who conducts consultations. We have a structure in place. When we design a full curriculum review, there are what are called subject development groups which used to be called subject groups or committees. By and large, people are nominated to join such groups. A group will include people such as an inspector from the relevant unit of the Department of Education and Skills or an examiner from the State Examination Commission. It will also have somebody from the NCCA and people nominated by subject teacher associations, the unions and management bodies.

Perhaps this is what the Senator was alluding to, but in 2012 we reviewed the arrangements for the subject groups and the boards a level above them. One of the issues we identified was that we were not getting more recent teachers with different experience. I use the phrase "more recent teachers" because somebody pointed out that the term "younger teachers" was probably ageist. We introduced a system to co-opt newer teachers or people with specific expertise if it was missing. Generally, if we are co-opting onto committees, we insert an ad in the newspaper indicating the expertise for which we are looking.

Generally, a background paper is produced initially. In response to an issue raised by Deputy Ciarán Cannon and others, we try to draw on what the research and experience are telling us, as well as international best practice, to identify the latest trends. Sometimes we also commission international research. It might be of interest to the committee to learn that in October we will produce a background document on an ethics programme.

Some work was done for the consultation document on what other countries are doing in this area. That will be part of the background paper that will go out for consultation, on foot of which the group will sit down and come up with the subject specification, which, when it is developed, goes out for consultation again.

As well as our online consultation, we hold consultation events. For the junior cycle we had a specific conference on English, where we invited schools to send representatives and teachers to have a discussion of the draft specification. Some of the work is done by nominated volunteers and there are permanent staff in the NCCA. It is a great team, small compared to other countries but enthusiastic. If we are working on a particular subject we will second someone in from a school with particular expertise or a university as a development officer for the subject and that person will work for us for two or three years.

Deputy Cannon raised a point about independence. We have a partnership body at council level and in all our structures, and we work in a landscape that is political with a small "p", though education is political under all definitions of the word. A really important role of the NCCA is to put evidence of research on the table and to raise ideas for discussion. Our credibility is very tied up with having that evidence. Another feature is the feasibility of what we recommend, and the network schools are quite important to enable us to try stuff because our role is to push things a bit further than might be comfortable. If we come up with things that the Department and schools say are ridiculous we will not get anywhere either, so there is a balance involved.

I agree that one of the constraints on our work is Internet and computer facilities. We have now introduced a curriculum online and over 1 million different users have accessed the NCCA website. As Deputy Cannon knows from his time working with me, I am in the Stone Age when it comes to IT and technology, but the site is amazing. We will try to continue to give a hard copy of materials to teachers, but the advantage of doing a curriculum online is that it allows one to go from the curriculum objective to samples of students' work, so it is very flexible. However, an issue validly raised by teachers is that access depends a lot on the part of the country one is in, so we also give out USB keys. This is a challenge in music and other things, though it is improving a huge amount, and the new school broadband connection has helped.

I was asked about special education. In junior cycle we do the normal level 3 on the qualifications framework because there are students with special needs who can achieve that. There is, however, a cohort of students with special needs who will not be able to do level 3 so, in partnership with NABMSE, the association for special schools, we have developed a couple of modules at level 2 so they will get level 2 awards. One of them is on a personal project which involves caring for a pet, which can be seen on the website. Another is in forensic science, based on the popularity of CSI and involving different projects in that area.