Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. I will go to the last one first. That is under review. A review is being done on that by the State Examinations Commission which will inform what happens.

I have met and engaged with survivors and I appreciate the valuable work done in this committee. It is my intention to move this as quickly as possible in the next short while. I am not in a position to give the specific date but I assure the Deputy it will be rather quick.

On SET applications, I have previously outlined there is a change in the format and we have advocated in relation to those who are unhappy with the allocation, notwithstanding that 67% are holding the same or increasing their allocation while 23% are seeing a reduction, 70% of which reductions are five hours or less. Of the remaining 10%, or 80 schools, only eight have applied for a review. In terms of the larger number that have applied for a review, there are 218 reviews.

We have given a commitment that the reviews would take place between March and May and in time for the beginning of the new school year in September. The Department is moving as quickly as possible through those. It is only in the last two weeks or so that they have started to come in. Thirty-two of those who have sought the review thus far will get an additional allocation. We are talking about 427.5 additional hours. That ranges anywhere between 2.5 and 27.5 hours. There is quite a range in terms of the applications.

People are fearful of the review process but we ask them to engage with it. No model will be perfect or get it 100% right for every school. We have 4,000 schools in the system. We want to get it right. We are giving the commitment. We can only work off the data that was returned to the school but that data may well have changed. There could be a change of circumstance within the school. We ask schools to inform us and work through the review. We will do all we can to do it as expeditiously as possible and ensure schools get the allocation they require.

I have written something down here about applications and I have no idea what I was talking about. What was that?