Mr. Jeremy Godfrey:

I thank the Chairman and the members for this opportunity to give evidence today. The International School of Dublin is the only school in Ireland that offers the international baccalaureate curriculum at primary level. The International Baccalaureate's mission is to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect, as Professor MacCraith said when he spoke of the importance of international education.

I will now introduce myself. I relocated to Dublin three and a half years ago, after 20 years in Hong Kong, to take up a position in the public service in Ireland. In Hong Kong I was the chairman of two international schools in an environment where the international education sector was much more mature and developed than it is here. I am joined by my colleague Mr. Vincent Mc Carthy who is a member of the board of the International School of Dublin. In his day job Mr. Mc Carthy is the chief executive of the Festival of Curiosity.

I wish to speak on four points - why Brexit could increase demand for international school provision in Ireland; the current state of international school provision; how international education provision might evolve; and policy recommendations. We have some insights into the demand for international schooling from contacts with our parent body, contacts with multinational companies, chambers of commerce, embassies, IDA Ireland and through a research project we commissioned from Grant Thornton in 2016. A consistent message from all these sources is that when executives are offered the chance to relocate, apart from work considerations, housing and education for their children are the two most important considerations when deciding whether to take up a position. In our research we have heard anecdotal evidence of people who had turned down posts in Ireland because of the lack of what they considered to be suitable education for their children.

As a result of Brexit, Ireland will be competing with other EU economies for multinational operations relocating from the UK. Ireland's success in attracting this investment will partly depend on the ability to offer suitable educational options for the children of the executives who would come here. Our research suggests several characteristics of the ideal type of international school. One factor is that it would provide education from pre-kindergarten all the way through to sixth form because people come with children of different ages and they like to know that their children will be able to go to the same school, and that the schooling would be available as the children grow older. Another feature would be that the international baccalaureate is provided. As the gold standard programme offered around the world, people could be sure that if they come to Ireland and their children do the international baccalaureate here they could be prepared if their parents take another overseas posting, and they could take up the international baccalaureate again. The programme also has a very good record of preparing people to go back into national systems of education. Fees are another characteristic to be considered. People would like the fees for an international education to be comparable to those of other fee-paying schools in the Dublin area. They would like the school to be a not-for-profit school with a strong community spirit. They would also like an international school to be not just for international students with a leavening of about 25% to 35% of the school body to consist of local students, maybe returnees from the Irish diaspora or local families whose children might like to study overseas in the future and would like the international baccalaureate curriculum. This is an extremely important implication of Brexit for Ireland and being able to provide education for the children of relocating executives may be more an economic question than an educational one.

People may say that Ireland is not ready for this - as Mr. McGrane has said - and the current state of play is that Ireland is probably not ready. There is very limited provision of international baccalaureate education. We are the only primary school offering the programme and there is one secondary school offering the leaving certificate equivalent programme. There is a school in Greystones offering the middle-years programme but it is mostly targeted at Spanish students who come to Ireland for one year. Mr. McGrane made reference to a proposal for a through train international baccalaureate school in Leopardstown in the next year. In our view this is a very useful contribution to what Ireland needs but it will not, on its own, be sufficient because there is actually more demand for international school places. That school could be entirely filled by ex-patriot families who are currently in the State's education system and who might prefer to be at a school offering the international baccalaureate. There is a need for even more capacity than just one school.

We also believe that it is desirable that there should be a complementary role in international education for the not-for-profit sector. The not-for-profit sector has the mission of supporting all the educational needs of the foreign direct investment families, irrespective of whether it is particularly profitable. It would tend to keep fees a bit lower and it would be easier to generate the community spirit.

Having spoken with IDA Ireland we are also very conscious that it is not all about Dublin. There is a need to get foreign investment to come to other regions. While we believe that Dublin is the first priority it is not the only priority and it would be very desirable to expand international education to the regions. Our vision is for a number of international baccalaureate schools in Dublin and elsewhere. Some of these might be stand-alone schools and some might share facilities with local schools or with schools offering the national curriculum of France or Germany. There are a number of different possibilities. As the charity that runs the International School of Dublin we are looking at expanding our mission to have a wider promotion of the international baccalaureate in Ireland and to change our name to reflect that.

I shall conclude with some policy recommendations. Reference was made to what I might like to see happening in the next two months. To help the not-for-profit sector in expanding schools it would be very desirable if the Government could identify a site in Dublin for a second international baccalaureate school and to invite proposals from the not-for-profit sector to operate a school on that site. There would also be a need for a little bit of money to help fund the start-up costs or expansion costs to cover the other curriculums.

That could be by way of a loan. International schools, even in the not-for-profit sector, can be self sustaining over time, and a loan could begin to be repaid after four or five years.

It would be useful to have a study on the demand for international education outside Dublin. The Grant Thornton report carried out really focused on Dublin, but I think if we want to promote the international baccalaureate outside Dublin some information on the demands would be useful.

I would also say that attracting local students into these schools is very desirable from a social point of view. However, there is a problem with the way the the international baccalaureate is valued as an entrance qualification for Irish universities. Professor MacCraith spoke about Northern Irish qualifications. We have exactly the same problem with the international baccalaureate. The perception is that Irish parents would be mad to send their children to an international baccalaureate school if the eventual aim was to get entrance to an Irish university via the CAO system.

Brexit does present some challenges, but the foundations are in place to meet the challenges. With leadership and collaboration we can create an environment for international education that is attractive for new investment and invigorating for society. We have supplied a more detailed briefing paper, and we are happy to answer questions.