Mr. John Boyle:

On the social partnership question, there was a time in the Republic when there were real social partners, with every group involved in the discussions about national agreements, although that has not been the case for some time. Generally, in the public sector, an agreement is negotiated for a few years directly with government and the various trade unions are involved in the discussions. In recent years, that has been negotiated a little more centrally by Irish Congress of Trade Unions officers, of whom I am one, but at the same time, all the unions keep in weekly contact as to how the discussions are happening.

On the bigger scale, Mr. McCamphill mentioned the LEEF. That has been a great success because it enables all the employer representatives, the trade union representatives and a lot of senior Ministers to come together monthly to discuss improvements within the economy and how that can filter down to citizens. There have been a lot of discussions in that forum on housing and all the various aspects of having a modern society and we really value that work. There is also all the informal work that happens because of the relationships that have been built up over the years, whereby the trade union has connections with all the groups it represents, and they all come together at least once a year at the national economic dialogue, which tends to take place in June. That is a chance for all the representative groups to have their shopping list in front of the Minister for Finance and the Taoiseach in the context of the budget for the year ahead.

On the differences in the education system, it is gas that in 1932, after the Stanley report and the establishment of national schools, the school system was the exact same throughout the island of Ireland at primary level, and in the intervening years a lot of changes took place in regard to church involvement in education and so on. There is a lot of commonality between the systems, North and South. The biggest difference is that in the South, education tends to be funded more centrally; there is one Department of Education, which has full control over the grants going to schools, and the grants are specific. There is a grant for cleaning and maintenance, for example, and secretaries and caretakers. In the North, however, the funding goes directly to the school, which has autonomy over the use of the funding. That might all work reasonably well at a time there is plenty of funding, but not when there are draconian cuts and principal teachers and boards of governors have to make choices as to whether to keep a secretary or a school meals programme. On balance, I think our system is better because at least you know what the money is for and you are obliged to spend it on that priority area. There are a lot of differences but, as I mentioned, the results students achieve in international tests are still very high. We always like to set the bar as high as possible, however, so I always wonder, if we are achieving this much with the least funding in the OECD, where we would be if we were properly funded. We would probably be at the top in all those areas throughout the world. There is still a lot of work to be done.