Mr. Eddie Ward:

Again I thank the committee for the opportunity to meet it about this issue. The critical part in all of this is the autonomy of the school in respect of its decision making. Largely, a school decides its own curriculum. It decides on how to make its policies and how inclusive an approach it adopts. Clearly, from the Department's perspective, we see that all policy making should involve parents, and increasingly the students, as policy has a great impact on the holistic development of a child, particularly at post-primary level. That would be our guidance. We cannot coerce schools into doing something. We can prescribe the curriculum in certain areas. They are usually general directions but may be specific in the case of some subjects. We are generally in the role of funder, but also of persuader. We do that. We try to influence schools through raising awareness; high quality continuing professional development; working with national curriculum making bodies; working with national strategies such as Healthy Ireland; and working with the national representative bodies and partners in education generally. There is a very keen commitment here.

Teachers and schools want to do a good job so that their students grow to be mature, responsible, healthy adults. We all acknowledge that there is an issue and we all need to ensure it is owned by society outside schools.