Ms Anne McDonagh:

Quite often, teachers and principals are very passionate about their school, because they put so much of their lives into it and their teaching. I understand where they are coming from. However, we find principals feel as passionate, but then they retire and the school and children must be looked after. The patron has responsibility for what happens there. When, as happened, somebody came in to us and said the cheque of another person working in the school who went to the bank was stopped and that because of the new bank governance it would not be paid any more, the teacher had no responsibility for that, but the patron had. Therefore, the teachers cannot say they are going to keep this school open, unless they have the final responsibility for it. They do not.