Mr. Mark O'Connor:

That is where it gets interesting. All of our members knew that we were going to that meeting. We issued a note about the meeting to our membership and there was a humungous backlash in the media and on social media. That evening, the Department decided to widen the scheme. This was good news but it is also where the confusion started. Approximately two weeks later, we were asked to attend another briefing. We were told at that point, "This is the scheme". We thought it had been widened at that time but other information became available over the weekend that made it clear that certain cohorts of children that had been discussed were to be excluded from the scheme. It is definitely not correct to say that people were consulted or that the views of parents were sought.