Ms Mary Nihill:

There is another issue that would not cost a huge amount of money but, again, it is a culture thing. There is some difficulty when we talk about the role and difficulties of school leaders. There is no uniform opinion on the role of a school leader, which breaks down very much at selection level. Selection committees are often confused about the primary role of a school leader, which perhaps crosses primary and post-primary sectors. In an interview with a selection committee comprised of five people, there may be a complete difference of opinion from one end of the selection committee table to the other on the essential requirements being sought. Perhaps some members of the selection committee will prioritise the leading of learning while others will prioritise other things such as compliance or care of the building. That concept needs to be looked at.

Senator Power asked for improvements that would not cost much, so I will outline another one. Perhaps we could look at the whole public service and redeploy people between Departments. As Mr. Cottrell pointed out, some of the stuff that principals spend a lot of time doing does not necessarily need a teacher to do it. Perhaps some creative redeployment from other sectors, such as the HSE or whatever, could create space for the teachers, principal and deputy principal to lead learning in schools.