Ms Rosemary Steen:

I will comment further on the environment in which the centre operates. Deputy Tully will appreciate this because she was in Armagh. The centre is a unique experiment between two Government Departments on this island. It is the only body of its type. Like the Good Friday Agreement, respect for jurisdictions to make their own decisions is something that we in the centre very much support. We try to make sure that they have the best information to guide those decisions but ultimately we allow both education Departments to make the decisions they wish to make in their jurisdictions while also bringing them together for discussions. That is why the meeting in November, at which senior representatives of both Departments sat with our board and had a very good exchange, was so important. This means that information on best practice in both parts of the island is shared. That is what we are there to ensure. When we see something successfully applied in Northern Ireland, such as the whole-school model, we ensure the senior officials in the Republic are aware of that. Equally, there are some things which are being very successfully done in the Republic that the Northern officials at the meeting were very interested in. Part of our role is to ensure that exchange of information around how these services are evolving happens.

I am also a parent of a boy with autism. I feel it is very important that the voice of parents is there in the decisions that are made. That is part of the engagement that we wish to do in the South to see if the training need is still as great. That will be part of the landscape review. The centre's view at this stage is that the expansion of services should be focused on the child. In other words, the view of the board is that it wants the child's need to be put first. However, we respect the right of both authorities to make decisions in the context of what is correct for their jurisdiction. We would not want to be seen to impose anything from the centre.

Mr. Lennon might clarify that.