Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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Deputy Martin is ahead of herself, not for the first time in terms of good ideas.

I would certainly welcome that initiative. I now volunteer with Special Olympics and I worked with them. In the Special Olympics, every board and at every level of the organisation, be it at a local club level, regional, country or global level it is the policy that an athlete is a member of the board and has the supports around them in terms of speaking for their peers. It is a principle that we should adhere to generally across education. I know many primary school pupils, as I am sure members do also, who would love to have a chance to speak at a board of management level and tell everybody how they thought of the way the school was run.

This has been a very interesting gathering. The thoughts, observations and insights have lead to a greater understanding for all of us. The message that should come from today's meeting is that we are looking at a culture of change. We are looking for more transparency in terms of how schools do their work and the interaction between the students, the parents, and the teachers. Nobody should be lost in any of that. With all stakeholders working collaboratively, we should be able to achieve better outcomes for everybody involved in the process.

This is the first day of the engagement on this issue. We will be having a second day of engagement with the unions, the INTO, the TUI, the ASTI, the ETBI and the students secondary school network. We will be back in contact with the witnesses then.

May I thank everybody for giving us their time this afternoon. It was very worthwhile. I thank our witnesses and members.