Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Like the Chairman and other speakers, I welcome our delegation and thank them for the comprehensive outline of the achievements to date. There is an obvious need for more progress as well. It is welcome that the Good Friday Agreement refers to facilitating and encouraging integrated education, and all of us would like more progress to be made. With the 65 schools, these institutions educate approximately 8% of the student population, which is still quite low by any yardstick. I had the privilege of visiting Lagan College in the mid-1990s with the British-Irish parliamentary group of the time, comprising Members of the Dáil and Seanad, as well as members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords. We did some study on education and where progress could be made but it was a much smaller school at the time. The population today comprises 1,386 students, which is a great achievement. Naturally, I would like to see more integrated schools. We speak about the 65 schools but are these all second level institutions? Are some of them primary schools?