Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will ask for a response on that for the Senator from both the NCSE and the State Examinations Commission. Efforts are being made to reform that area. There has been criticism that accommodations at junior certificate level are often harder to get at leaving certificate level, which throws children into disarray, so to speak. I will revert to the Senator on that.

On the difference between the projections, in simple terms, the Department has data on enrolments in the school. It has a quality data set. The CSO, in looking at the entire population and the number of children aged between zero and 15 years, does not have those forensic data. Our data are different also in that we can identify a school whose children may not come from the immediate catchment; some of them may be coming from quite a distance. We have data, and using CSO data also, we can identify where they are coming from. They are different data sets, and ours shed light that is helpful to planning. We do not just rely on the CSO data.

I take Deputy Jim Daly's point. In simple terms, I presume what happens is that the need for SNAs and resource teachers is a comparison between the junior infants coming in and the sixth class who are leaving. What causes the increased demand for these allocations is based on the difference between the profile of those two classes. One does not have a final view until one has received those data. One could make a stab at it and say we expect 80% of the need of the junior infants to be similar to senior infants but I do not know whether that is a credible approach. I am aware, however, that there is a new resource allocation model, which is designed to give greater certainty because it will be based on a wider and more predictable range of indicators. The new model will ensure certainty in resource teacher allocations in future and will not be so dependent on the annual assessment-driven process. That is one of the merits of it, and it would give-----