Mr. Martin Hanevy:

I hope I do not forget some of Deputy Martin's questions. We strayed, rightfully, into the issue of boards of management, their composition and how they are structured at present. There is definitely work to be done in that area. The boards of management of the 3,200 primary schools changed in the past year. The model for the composition of boards has been in place since 1998, but an issue that was raised as a possible change when the Department was working with the partners this year was changing the role of the school principal from being a voting member of the board to attending the board. That would mean the board could make its decisions without the principal being present. That is good governance in most places. The only partner that supported the Department in the working group was the National Parents Council Primary. All the other partners, unions, the IPPN and the management bodies were not having it. That is not to say we will not continue to persevere for it. There is an issue about how the boards of small schools are serviced and how they can be serviced. Even the IPPN has done work in the past about the division of the governance.

In regard to the charter, we are working with our partners on the child protection area at present because we know the safeguarding statements that will have to be provided when the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs commences the Children First legislation. We will be creating a template. There will be a great many common requirements in the charter, in terms of information for parents, the type of complaints procedure and how you engage people. We will have a standard part but equally I take the Deputy's point about the disadvantaged. We are quite seized about how the charter may have to be tapered. The beauty of guidelines as distinct from regulations is that one can more readily taper the components to the needs of a special school for example.

There will be a lot of spoon-feeding because we want these things done. I hear Mr. Seán Cottrell's point. Certainly, if the Oireachtas enacts this legislation, when we lead the work with the partners to take the flesh that is in the principles it and create the living charter, schools will be following that template. I do not want to see that as bureaucracy, I want to see the purpose, which is a changed attitude. I do see where there is extra work in simply asking people how they feel the school is going, inviting feedback in a simple questionnaire or simply at the end of the day setting out the number and type of complaints so that the entire parent body gets that type of information. In the primary schools where the pupils must do 183 days, one time the Department used to police that, and we would receive letters that a school only did 180 days because a boiler burst. That is a simple piece of information that should be included when the school reports to its parents at the end of the year. How many of the 183 days did it make and, when it did not meet the 183 school days, to report the reason. I do not see why anybody should be afraid to report that to the parent body. There are charges that I do not think will involve extra work, but will be a change of mindset.