Mr. Mark O'Connor:

I will finalise the last piece. With regard to many of the Department's consultative pieces that we experienced in recent years, it is pretty much a fait accompliwhen one is asked one's opinion on something. I will cite one example. When it changed over the resource teaching hours scheme everybody in the room would have very much advocated for an appeals mechanism for when a parent was not happy with the number of hours allocated to their child. It was unanimous within the room, but the Department chose not to go with it. That is one example. If the Department was to consult in a meaningful way it would be very welcome.

One of the other partners coming into the committee this afternoon along with the Department is the National Council for Special Education, NCSE. In fairness to the NCSE, its consultative processes when developing policy advice are generally quite significant. It will meet with us and invite written submissions and sometimes one can see the submissions we have made reflected in the NCSE policy advice.