Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

Yes, but what is significant in this instance is that the conference will obviously involve a number of key presentations as well as workshops. It will allow people, including parents, to listen to each other. A key element to assisting our discussions will be the working through of the new patron model, which will be up and running in September. At that stage, we will be able to see — from the perspective of parents, teachers, principals, patrons and local communities — how the model is working. That will feed in to our discussion on this matter.

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