Ms Deirdre McDonnell:

The Chairman mentioned migration issues. Some of those issues will come through in the forecasting and modelling that we need to do because those trends are built into our projections for pupil numbers at both primary and post-primary levels. I accept her point that such things can come in left of field sometimes and dramatically increase, which is something that we need to consider. In general, models tend to get updated fairly regularly to take account of trends. One considers the model but one also takes in information from the people who work on the ground. That means one gets a sense of what is happening and different things happen in various parts of the country.

In terms of the four-year bachelor of education degree programme, students are allowed to work in substitute jobs when they have reached their final year of study.