Dr. Seamus McGuinness:

Not to dodge the question on integrated education, from a social perspective it has to be a good thing. From an economic perspective, there is duplication. There is an argument for it as well. Unfortunately, we had no data on religiosity within our data sets but we were able to measure social class. Social class is the biggest predictor of educational failure in the North. The impact of social class on people's likelihood of educational failure is three times higher in the North than it is in the Republic. It is a huge impact. If they come from a poor background, they are much more likely either to be an early school leaver or to have only primary-level education compared to those in the Republic. The issue of academic selection is definitely tied up with that effect.