Dr. Michael Redmond:

I could not agree more that we may be working on unchecked assumptions regarding the data. I am referring to the gross data indicating the number of schools that actually have the provision in question, the number of those schools that are oversubscribed, the number of those that apply the criterion, and the outcomes. We encourage the Department, with its warrant and authority, to produce a definitive survey and a final tranche of figures that reflect the contemporary position in schools across the country. It is difficult.

Of course, 250 out of 380 involve self-selection. By and large, the headline numbers may be at variance. We carried out the survey following a request from the Department to find out how the data reflected the current situation. It was at the height of a pandemic, when school principals were suffering an existential crisis in their schools. Survey fatigue is a serious problem.

The Department recently carried out a survey on unmet need regarding teacher supply. With the support of all the management bodies, it got a response rate of more than 90%. I encourage the Department to replicate that exercise because that kind of response rate is very difficult for a management body to come by. We encourage the production of data.

Working with unchecked assumptions carries the risk of using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. We need to see how big the issue is. However, I need to keep coming back to the straightforward fact that school capacity is the problem. Schools do not want to apply criteria that are exclusionary, but any criterion they apply will, by definition, include some and exclude others. Every parent wants the criterion to be the one that will benefit his or her child. That is how I felt about my children, and that is the way members and everybody else in the country will feel. The crisis is not of the schools' making; it is an infrastructure and investment problem that really needs to be addressed as a matter of national priority.