Mr. Noel Malone:

They could be, but the education centres have a bigger role in terms of the Department. It has been utilising them much more. The education centre administers the common application system in Limerick, for example. All applications go into the education centre and they come back out for schools to decide, "Yes" or "No". The centre administers them. All that is required is that all schools would have a common, fair and reasonably transparent admissions system and that places would be allocated by the education centre. That in itself would provide a level of independence and fairness because the education centre represents nobody. The education centre represents the best interests of all in the locality. The education centre could be one possibility. What is more, there should be more power, if a section 29 decision is retained, to come up with solutions that go beyond the particular school and the particular child.