Mr. John Kearney:

To allay some of the fears regarding the set model to which the Deputy alluded, for the coming year, 67% of schools will have increased their allocation or actually retained it at the same level. Of those schools whose number of hours will actually reduce, 70% of them will have a reduction of five hours or less. Another important insight to share with the Deputy is that the reductions at the moment are the primary factor in the reduced set allocation. If the overall enrollments are coming down in the schools, that is obviously going to reflect in the set allocation.

The Deputy asked a specific question about the review. It is very much our commitment to work towards very tight deadlines in March and June to respond very quickly to schools if they have fears and concerns about the set model accurately accounting for the teacher allocation they have been provided with for the coming year. If there are gaps from their perspective and they feel the allocation is not adequately fulfilling their needs, we will be very proactive. We are very much committed to fulfilling that three-month turnaround. The Deputy's raised specific queries about potential individual sites in Cork and the Glanmire site. I will arrange for an update on that after this particular meeting.

The Deputy asked a very interesting question regarding section 67. Again, I commend the cross-party contribution in June of 2022 on the section and the powers provided to the NCSE in that regard. Thankfully, we have not had to use it. There have been a number of close call situations. Following proactive work with school patrons and individual meetings with school principals, however, that has been averted. As the Deputy correctly identified, nobody actually wants that legislation to be used for the reasons he outlined. However, if we have to avail of the legislation itself, we will. So far, so good; we have not had to. Again, over the next three months, we will proactively work with all concerned to ensure that as was achieved last year, every child will be offered a placement, as is due fit in a specialised provision. There were other queries regarding teacher professional development to which Ms Walsh might allude.