Mr. Lee Reynolds:

From a student perspective, research positions open up, training opens up and potential careers in one of the main scientific organisations in the world open up. Contracts become available to Irish citizens, and it is contracts for everything and anything. I would also stress that there is an impression that CERN is just for physicists. I suppose I should not use the phrase, "Don't quote me" at an evidence session for an education committee but from my nearly 50 year-old memory I think that only 5% to 10% are actually physicists. There is then a huge chunk who are engineers and then there is a very large accountancy department and a very large legal department. Right now none of that is open to an Irish citizen so CERN membership buys a range of opportunities across a range of subjects. People talk about the fee. A fee is paid but it is through those different routes. It is a circular economy to a degree. We pay a membership fee but we get a lot in return and CERN as an organisation always wishes to work very closely with the country that becomes a member to ensure that it succeeds in getting that return. It is an opportunity and as the IoP is the body for the UK and Ireland, the fact Ireland does not currently have a formal membership of CERN, which is exceedingly rare in a European context, blocks joint research that could be taken forward.

In terms of the other question, we stress whole-school equity planning. This is a means to have the discussion on it. The emphasis is on the whole school it is not just about the principals or the teachers. It is about governors and parents and having that as a culture and a system so that all discussions and influences on a child are making their path as broad as it can be made. There is some OECD research that talks about how children could have chosen preferences for subjects by the age of seven. That is why it is important in primary school that we do now shut down what a child aspires to but broaden it. I also stress that in terms of equality and the delivery, the issue of gender is the canary in the coalmine to some degree. It is what we have figures on. Our experience is if we delve into a range of other representations from society we will find that gender is not alone in underrepresentation. That again is the advantage of whole-school equity planning. It impacts across the full cross-section of underrepresented groups.