Mr. Pat O'Mahony:

Somebody referred to the issue of priority for relatives. Notwithstanding that I am well aware that many people have an emotional attachment to the school they or their grandfather attended, having regard to all of the facts, it is necessary to dispense with this approach. I saw this done in Australia when I worked there. It can be done, therefore, and while it raises considerable ire, we may as well face the issue now rather than putting it off or addressing it in a piecemeal fashion.

We have to find a way of valuing schools on the basis of factors other than the Central Admissions Office or CAO points system because this approach is destructively undermining the education system. A person appointed school principal at second level will find that the only way to build his or her school is to build its results in the CAO points race and, on that basis, children will come to the school. Principals must do whatever is necessary to achieve this. We have in-built in the system an almost invisible hand which forces principals to do things that are contrary to the good education of the young people in their school and the interests of wider society.

We were taken over completely by the notion that third level education was the only way to go. However, we know, not only in Ireland but also across the world, that many of those emerging from third level education are unable to gain employment and only chose the particular route of third level because they believed it was necessary to have a third level qualification. There are other options, including the apprenticeship and traineeship systems and the general further education and training system. There is now evidence to show that in some instances people do significantly better if they go through the latter system.

We must consider new measures of success in education. While this will be a big job, it will be central to ensuring we no longer have a system in which children who do not get into over-subscribed schools travel many miles to attend schools in other communities, thereby pushing out children in those schools, while there is a school next door that is under-subscribed. The key to achieving this is doing what I have seen done elsewhere, namely, requiring schools to put forward a curriculum that is capable of accommodating the needs of all potential students in the community, rather than leaving it up schools to decide on what curriculum they wish to put forward and allowing them to narrow it as much as they like. When the curriculum is narrowed, it attracts children who are sharp in primary school performance in the three Rs and other children are pushed away. This is, to some extent, a critical juncture at which we have a real opportunity to do something. We suggest the State, perhaps through the education and training boards, handle an admissions system that is fair, transparent and reasonable, while providing a guarantee that, regardless of which school to which parents send their children, it will have a curriculum that is capable of meeting their child's needs. That is equally important.

On forcing somebody away from the school of his or her choice, one would wonder on what basis the choice is made. It is made on a very ephemeral basis such as a headline in an article inThe Irish Times or something similar.

The Bill and the Act that will follow present a real opportunity to get many things right, not only in admissions policies but also in what happens after a child is admitted to a school.