Mr. Hugh Fitzgerald:

The first question came from Deputy Madigan, and concerned about the 59 questions and from where they came. Those questions were formulated over the course of about a year via what Comhairle na nÓg might call its own method of sourcing ideas. We would use placemats, that is, students attending a conference would write on the entire tablecloth. As such, students might not have been actively speaking but they were still actively writing. Those tablecloths were sent off for analysis, and from that analysis we noticed recurring ideas. Certain questions, on gender or types of school, for example, were obligatory. However, the core questions on the fleshy subject matter that is education came from those placemats and from the mandate we got from the people.