Mr. Pat McKelvey:

A great positive about the legislation is that such is the clarity and the fact that all schools, by and large, apart from some issues which we are discussing, have an identical process to follow. It is easy for parents to become aware of what the process is because anyone they speak to about it will have gone through the same process in other schools. The legislation has been very good in this way. It has kept everybody singing off the same hymn sheet with regard to process at least, even if the criteria used are different in different schools. This has been a great advantage of the legislation.

Mr. Crone was asked about principals and deputy principals. Very often they may very strongly want to go in a particular direction but the board of management, parent representatives and teacher representatives may want to go in a different direction. Ultimately it is the board of management, with the permission of patron, who decides on the policy of the school. This is an important part of the constituency. The vast majority of people are very open about this. Human nature being what it is sometimes people think they need to get into the tent. This is definitely an influencing factor.