Mr. John Hammond:

With regard to the Art Teachers' Association of Ireland, I mentioned earlier that the NCCA is a statutory body. One of the requirements of the NCCA is to include various stakeholders on all our committees. Those stakeholders usually include teachers, management bodies, business and social interests, representatives of the Department and representatives of the State Examinations Commission. They also usually include representatives of subject associations. For example, the group that developed the junior cycle visual art course would have included a representative of the Art Teachers' Association of Ireland and the current work that is taking place on leaving certificate art would also include a representative of that association. The association's voice is fully heard and represented in those structures. Indeed, subject associations are within all the structures in the NCCA.

On the leaving certificate art curriculum, it is eagerly awaited among art teachers. A draft of the curriculum is due to go to our council at its March meeting. Once it is approved by the council, it goes for public consultation, so the Art Teachers' Association of Ireland and others will get an opportunity to comment on it and suggest adjustments to it. The specification will be completed by September and it will then issue to the Department. The Department ultimately decides on an implementation date for the specification within schools. An interesting feature of the work that has been done on the new leaving certificate art specification is we have worked on aligning it with a new common European framework of reference for the visual arts. That has proved a useful tool in terms of aligning the arts education and experience the new leaving certificate course will provide with an objective standard that is in the process of discussion and agreement across Europe. It is an interesting development.