Under the provisions of the Education Act, 1998, the board of management is the body charged with the direct governance of a school. The Board of Management is the employer of teaching and other staff and has similar powers to any other employer. While my Department operates a payroll service in respect of teachers on behalf of Boards of Management and has statutory functions in the setting of terms and conditions for teachers, my Department is not their employer. Accordingly, my Department does not have any employer/employee relationship with the teachers or other staff in a school and it cannot perform functions which are proper to the Board in relation to the management of the teaching staff of the school. In that context, it would be inappropriate for me to comment on the case in question.