I should like to deal with some of the issues raised in last week's Mail. There were so many "red herrings'" it is impossible to deal with them all so I'll be selective and brief.

No one suggested that education at Lurgan College was anything less that excellent, that Lurgan College should be replaced by one monolithic Comprehensive School, or the environment at Lurgan College was less than safe. I don't know if the people who raised these issues were deliberately trying to stir up controversy or if they simply missed the point.

Before I move on to deal with some of the other issues that were raised I need to say something by way of aside. Why are some people, like the poor they are always with us, not Catholics I hasten to add, prepared to defend the right of the Catholic community to have their own schools and promote their own ethos, as I would, but would deny Protestants the same rights? Is this just not another form of bigotry?

To suggest the future of education in Lurgan should be the exclusive right of educationalists is patronising and nonsense. This is an issue that affects the whole community. The Catholic clergy, to their credit, acknowledge this in their pre-consultation paper: "Shaping the future of Catholic Education." They are not only consulting teachers, but in an effort to be inclusive, they are consulting parents.

Like them, I too, in the interests of being inclusive, would now like to broaden this debate. We have heard from former and current teachers at the college. We would like now to hear from Craigavon Senior High School and Lurgan Junior High. Their views seem to have been overlooked in all this. They are a very important and highly valued section of our community.

It is interesting that some of the letters, almost as an afterthought, make perfunctionary references to the schools. That is simply not good enough, and is dealing with the future of Protestant education piecemeal.

I want to place Craigavon Senior High School at the top of the agenda beside Lurgan College, not below it. That is why we need a comprehensive approach, and I don't use the word comprehensive in the educational sense, to draw up a blueprint that not only meets the needs of all our children, but those of our community.

To suggest that all three schools should be based on one site or adjacent sites, the actual physical layout could be worked out later does not seriously compromise the future of Lurgan College. Surely in the 21st century, with all the demands that are being made on the curriculum, it is in the interests of all our pupils to be educated on the same site rather than be scattered around the community.

In this setting pupils would opt for academic or vocational courses or a mix of both. Pupils would have access to a curriculum which is relevant, flexible, meets the challenge of a rapidly changing society, and helps our community to grow and survive in it.