Ms Laura Harmon:

I will defer to my colleague in a moment, but we look forward to engaging further with MEI in our dialogue on this matter. We made submissions to QQI on the IEM and it is great to hear that there is a good uptake of it by providers. It should be an added-value factor for them, in that, when students select where to go, they should look for this mark and it should be promoted to them as a quality mark. Having it should be advantageous for the schools.

There should be clarity around issues like expulsion and what is expected of students in terms of attendance, for example. I will pass over to Mr. Hearne. He deals directly with queries from students, so he might have some insight into this matter.