Ms Anne McDonagh:

Yes, I will come to that presently. Deputy McConalogue's other question was about the percentage of schools that might not continue beyond two years and the size of those schools. A number of schools have come to us in financial distress in the last two years. We are looking at their returns but our research is only in the early stages at the moment. We would reckon that for a significant percentage of schools, there are real concerns. We are trying to work out what size of school is actually able to manage on the grants available but we have not worked that out yet. The Department itself does not know. I spoke to the Department about this matter and it is interested in the data in that regard, in terms of ascertaining what size of school is actually able to manage on the grants, given the significant cuts.. Some schools are able to manage better than others. In some cases, schools are trying to raise money to parental contributions, local fairs and so forth. However, trying to manage on the moneys received from the Department, because of the cuts, is becoming a serious issue for schools. When we have hard and fast figures, we will supply them to the committee. By that I mean, a hard and fast percentage.