Mr. John Kearney:

I thank the Deputy for the queries raised about County Clare, which one of my colleagues will address. To go back to the SET model, I can reassure the Deputy that the Department of Education conducted extensive collaborations in this regard with school management bodies, the school representatives and the unions. It had a number of briefing meetings in September. They were followed up with subsequent meetings. Two consultations took place in January in relation to the SET model. Notwithstanding the level of consultation that was extensively conducted by the Department, the Deputy and her colleagues have reflected reservations that schooling communities throughout the country have in that regard.

To indicate conclusively to the Deputy, we are endeavouring to do the review process in a quick three-month turnaround period to assist schooling communities in terms of their planning endeavours for the year ahead.

At this stage I will call on my colleague to go through the specific queries on County Clare and west Clare.