Sinn Féin was not invited to the meeting but we are in the process of rolling out a series of public meetings across the north to which we will invite the SDLP to speak at.

The educationalists on the panel spoke very well and I have to say that I agreed with most of what the SDLP's spokesperson Dominic Bradley had to say in his opening statement as their policy by and large mirrors Sinn Féin's.

From December last year the Minister has been holding meetings with interested groups with the aim of securing consensus. This has included meetings with stakeholders in the Ballymena area. In March she outlined her proposals on Area-based planning to the Assembly. An area-based planning sub-group has been set up in the north-east and there is a consultation period on area-based planning which ends in January 2009 and I would urge all parents who want a say in how the new transfer system will operate to respond to that.

In May a compromise proposal was put forward by Caitríona Ruane which would allow grammar schools, if they so wish, to accept 50% of pupils based on academic ability in 2010 when today's P6s transfer.

For all other schools places will be allocated according to non-academic admissions criteria – including family, community and geography. When the consultation on Area-based planning ends and the north-eastern area-based planning group reports back next year we will have the detail of how . It was important that this local area-based planning group was set up and reports back as this area of the north is distinctly different to places like Belfast and issues such as rurality must be taken into account.

Thereafter in 2011 grammar schools, who want to, can accept 30% of pupils based on academic ability and in 2012 accept 20% of pupils based on academic ability. Academic selection will be phased out in 2013. When these proposals were outlined in May Dominic Bradley from the SDLP criticised this "backing down" and said that the Minister had "caved into pressure" Since then the SDLP has realised the need for consensus and at the meeting in Ballymena Mr Bradley said that he supported this compromise and I welcome this change in position.

However the 50/30/20% proposal which I have just outlined will only go ahead if political consensus is achieved. If there is no consensus at a political level shortly, the Minister will issue guidelines for schools in regard to transfer.

Those schools who want to continue with academic selection can do so but they will be in a minority and they will have to commission their own tests, a process which will be fraught with difficulty and legal pitfalls. 85% of post-primary schools support the Minister's proposals and the Minister will work to ensure that a firm Entitlement Framework is put in place on a mandatory footing in 2013.

This means that where some schools offer only 6 and 8 subjects at GCSE and A-Level now, they will be in a position to offer 24 and 27 subjects respectively in 2013.