Mr. Frank Hanlon:

It seems to be for a variety of reasons. The first thing is that before these reports were published and before the guidelines were in place, there was a lot of criticism that we did not know how many children were on reduced days or reduced timetables. We now know the number. We have done some exploration with the Tusla education support service and with our inspectorate whereby we have checked with a number of schools where this is happening. It can happen for a multitude of reasons but one of the common themes seems to be anxiety, mental health issues and trauma. Those seem to be the major reasons given in that cohort. Many of the children fall into the category of having special educational needs and there are separate interventions in that regard. The whole purpose of the guidelines is to use restricted timetables in a positive context. It is supposed to be a positive intervention. There are plans in place to reintegrate people back into school. This cannot be a long-term solution to anything. That is where it is coming from.