In a statement issued after a meeting, earlier this week, of the Transferor

Representatives’ Council which represents the three churches in matters of educational policy in Northern Ireland, Rev Ian Ellis (Church of Ireland), Rev Trevor Gribben (Presbyterian) and Rev Trevor Jamison (Methodist) continued “an unregulated system of transfer within Northern Ireland is something that is unacceptable to the overwhelming majority of the whole community and as such represents a failure in good governance.”

”We would therefore call upon the Minister of Education and the political parties, even at this late stage, to seek to find agreement to enable regulated interim arrangements for transfer to be put in place.”

However, the church spokesmen point out that for such a group to have the ”confidence of political parties and the wider community, it should be appointed in a consensual manner and made up largely of individuals from within the educational community, representing a range of necessary skills and views on transfer.”