Mr. David Duffy:

There are a few aspects on discrimination. Sadly, it happens in society and schools are a microcosm of society, so sometimes it happens in schools. We need to address it every time it happens.

The TUI has always argued that the teaching workforce has to be diverse. The longer period of teacher training that has been in place in recent years has in some ways created a greater difficulty in trying to achieve that because it means that if a teacher comes from certain socioeconomic backgrounds, it will be harder for him or her to engage in the process.

On anti-racism, a few very good programmes operate in schools, such as Anti-Racism Week and so on. As Ms Piggott and Mr. Ryan quite rightly said, it needs to be a part of the curriculum. Programmes such as the leaving certificate politics and society course, the junior certificate CSPE course and the social, personal and health education, SPHE, programmes are very important.

I am delighted that Senator Flynn mentioned the yellow flag programme. It is a very good programme and the TUI has been involved in it for a long period. I was the TUI representative on the programme for quite a few years. It is an excellent programme that does very good work in schools, and the TUI has been doing its best to promote it in schools where it does not exist.