There is a feeling [amongst parents] that if the secretary of state had such little grasp as to what was happening in one of the most important areas of her department it needs to be looked at.

Why is the GTC so surprised by all this? We could have told people this 10 years ago and saved a lot of time and money, not to mention heartache.

This is not going to go away. We?re going to learn from it and make it better. When parents and teachers work together, it?s a good signal to the student that says they (teachers and parents) are willing to work for me.

We want parents to know they can really become allies and partners so their students can do their best.

Once somebody is known, it seems as though anybody anywhere can say anything about them. Whereas if I simply stopped someone in the street and criticised their clothes, their work, their parents, their inner being, I'd be sued and I'd be thrown in prison.

My family, although they're very large on both my parents' sides, they don't know much about their family tree. Occasionally, they try to dig, but they can't get very far, and it's baffling. In Dublin, it seems that so many public records were wiped out; it's proven to be very difficult, so I know very little.