Mr. Seán Cottrell:

We came from a conference this morning on the role of the principal and looking at the importance of principals spending more time on the actual business of teaching and learning. There were a lot of good ideas but the common theme was that principals need to be relieved of administrative work. My feeling listening to this is that there are some good ideas but it will cripple principals, it is another added weight to the amount of administration. I also work on a hospital ward and the work of HIQA has crippled nurses. That nurse in question barely gets to see her patients. My feeling is that is what is happening here. We are creating a monster which will gobble up time. The boxes will all be ticked but it will not necessarily mean anything in practice. Let us look at good practice. Any examination based on good practice has to actually work. Remember that two out of every three schools are run by a principal who also teaches full time. If someone is already a full-time operator or administrator in any area and something is added to their workload, something has to give or else there are consequences. It is critical that the people concerned here work together on this Bill or else it will be a dead duck.