Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)

I thank the Minister of State, but I am conscious of the clock. Picking up on the point about SNA allocations, I want to reflect on some of the experience, and I raised this with the Minister last week and am not entirely satisfied the response she gave me was accurate. A number of principals have contacted me to say that the appeals mechanism has been removed from the NCSE website. I can read this directly from a school principal who asked me to read it:

It is bad enough that the very body who informed us that we required an increased level of SNA support, then gave us no increase. It is a further ignominy to have to appeal the allocation to the NCSE, the same body who recognised that we required an increase. It is an abomination that the NCSE would then remove the appeal process mechanism at this critical time.

That is from a principal of 25 years in west Dublin. It is a real frustration and I wonder what the Minister of State's explanation is.