Mr. Paul Collins:

We are working hard to engage with all the political parties. First, two Private Members’ Bills are coming before the Assembly and we are pushing for all parties to support them. These include a Bill to repeal the fair employment and treatment order, FETO, and there is the integrated education Bill, which is coming back on 7 and 8 February for further consideration before it goes to a final vote and on to royal consent. We are pushing to move those Bills forward among all political parties. I will send an invitation out to every member here to visit an integrated school in the next 12 months and see what is happening on the ground. Once one sees what is happening there on a local level, one will see the difference between that and the education that is offered by other organisations.

Like most political parties we have built together a manifesto and within that manifesto we will be looking at our key recommendations moving forward. It is not just about changing one school at a time; we need to have systemic change in Northern Ireland. We need to pull together the different government bodies to bring together a more community-led approach to area planning. We need to cut down on the vast costs involved in that, which Mr. Osborne mentioned. We have put forward that manifesto and we will have hustings in the North to which we will invite political representatives, including Claire Hanna MP and whoever is available. We are doing that kind of work and we are also working with Ulster University, including doing detailed work to transform education in Northern Ireland. We have put together research and indicated the way forward to make those changes. We are doing whatever we can at a local level to push this forward. We are also funding schools at a local level to have ballots to transform and we are putting pressure on the Northern Ireland Department of Education to release extra funding for ballots that are not being funded at a local level.

We would urge anyone on the committee to respond the independent review of education set up by the New Decade, New Approach agreement, which is having a consultation. I ask members to respond to that and to quote the Integrated Education Fund and our demands for systemic change in Northern Ireland. That is something we are pushing for. Although it will be a-----