Scotland could attempt to become a member of the European Economic Area (EEA) when the UK leaves the EU, BBC Scotland has learned.

The so-called Norway model has been privately floated as a possibility as the Scottish government seeks ways to maintain Scotland's links with the EU.
BBC Scotland's political editor Brian Taylor said the plan could give EU citizens the right to work in Scotland.
But it could only happen if the UK and European institutions agreed.
The idea emerged as a leaked memo about Brexit claimed splits in the UK cabinet mean there is still no overall plan for leaving the EU.
But Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said it was not a government memo, and he rejected its contents.
A UK government source said the document was an unsolicited pitch for work from a consultancy firm.
The Scottish government has said it will publish plans aimed at protecting Scotland's place in Europe in the coming weeks.
The EEA includes the existing EU states plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
Membership of the EEA allows Norway to have full access to the single market, with the country obliged to make a financial contribution to the EU budget and to accept the majority of EU laws.
Norwegians also have free movement across the EU, with EU citizens free to live and work in Norway too, but the country is not part of the customs union, so it is able to set tariffs for other countries.
Norway is exempt from EU rules on agriculture, fisheries, justice and home affairs - but the downside is that Norwegians have no say over how the rules of the single market are created.
Supporters of Scotland attempting to secure EEA membership say it would allow people from EU and EEA countries to work in Scotland even if they faced constraints elsewhere in the UK.
They argue that people employed in Scotland are already identified by a distinct tax code because of Holyrood's new tax powers.
But the UK government might take some convincing if ministers feared it could lead to back door access to the wider UK through Scotland.
Let me emphasise a point I have been making all day. This is not, currently, a Scottish government proposal. It has not been endorsed by ministers. It is an option in the mix - but one with influential backing.
Problems? Plenty. Firstly, EEA members are currently all autonomous states, not devolved territories like Scotland.
Secondly, the UK - as the EU member state - would have to give prior approval to such a plan, even if it caught the interest of European institutions.
And, thirdly, UK ministers may take some persuading if they fear that EU/EEA citizens could gain access to the wider UK, through Scotland, post Brexit.
Read more from Brian
Scottish Conservative finance spokesman Murdo Fraser said the SNP "know full well the EU would not allow Scotland to have a separate deal in the first place when the precedent that would set would go directly against the interests of some member states."
He added: "If the SNP's plan is to back a 'Norway-style' deal for Scotland, separate to the rest of the UK, that would erect a hard border between us and England, our largest market and nearest neighbour.
"And as legal experts have made clear, it would also mean having no say whatsoever in the EU regulations which would still apply to us.
"One of Nicola Sturgeon's grandly-titled 'five tests' was to ensure Scotland had a say in shaping the single market, not just being subject to its rules. So this plan would not just be bad for Scotland, it would even break her own test."
Labour's shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme that the UK should not be "divided" over its approach to EU membership.
He said: "In different constituencies, different regions, there were different views, but the overall view unfortunately was to withdraw from the EU.
"Let's work together constructively to get the best deal possible. What we need to do is make sure the Scottish government is working with the UK government overall."
It comes Holyrood prepares to debate a Scottish government motion urging MSPs to back Scotland staying within the European single market.
The motion calls on Scotland's place in the single market to be "fully protected", and calls for clarity from the UK government on its proposals to leave the EU, including whether it will seek continued membership of the single market.
Speaking ahead of the debate, SNP MSP Bruce Crawford said the UK government was "mired in confusion" over questions such as whether the UK and Scotland should be in the single market.
He added: "Every area of Scotland voted to remain in the EU and today's debate is an opportunity for the Tories and all other parties to reject a hard Brexit and stand up for Scotland.
"At this crucial stage while the UK government is still working out its negotiating position, this is the time to make Scotland's voice heard and challenge head-on those who want to lead us out of the single market, with all the costs to Scottish jobs and the economy."
Meanwhile, a report prepared for Holyrood's economy committee has estimated that Scotland could face further cuts in a Brexit "growth shock".
Economic think-tank IPPR Scotland said that if UK Chancellor Phillip Hammond uses public spending cuts to plug the whole of the £25bn UK budget gap per year by 2019/20 projected by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), it would cause a further £1.3bn cut to Scottish funds.
The scenario was one of three modelled by the think-tank, which also examined the impact of Westminster using public spending to deal with half or quarter of the budget gap - found to cause £670m and £330m further cuts to the Scottish settlement.
IPPR Scotland director Russell Gunson said: "Any further cuts to day-to-day spending in the rest of the UK could mean cuts for Scotland's budgets too, on top of very significant cuts already planned over the coming years."


Two clubbers who were sprayed with acid in an east London nightclub were so badly injured "they couldn't see", a witness has said.

The two men were among 16 who suffered burns during the attack at the Mangle E8 venue in Sidworth Street, Hackney, at about 01:10 BST on Monday.
A 20-year-old woman, who was also injured, said the men were "two black guys, but their faces were turned white because of the acid".
No-one has been arrested.
The injured men, aged 29 and 24, are in a serious but stable condition in a specialist burns unit in Essex.
The witness, who asked not to be named, said she had not see any argument or fight in the club but "in the space of two minutes people went from dancing to the acid being thrown".
"I was standing by the bar and then I got hit by something that at first felt like water but then my arms started blistering," she said.
A 25-year-old woman who suffered burns to her foot said people in the "packed" venue suddenly started shouting "go, go, go" and "let's move, let's move".
She said the acid had caused a "red circle" around her toes around the size of a 50p piece, which caused a strong "stinging" pain.
"It is scary because you just go out to have a good night and you realise how close it could have been to being a lot worse," she said.
Two Australian sisters who were also injured told the BBC they thought someone had "bombed the club" after they smelt gas.
Former Premier League footballer Jamie O'Hara said his cousin, who was in the club, had suffered blisters all over her head.
"Innocent people get injured for the sick act of violence," he tweeted.
Three cast members of the reality TV show The Only Way Is Essex - Jamie Reed, Jade Lewis and Chloe Meadows - were also reportedly among the hundreds evacuated from the LoveJuice event.
A London Fire Brigade spokeswoman said an "unknown corrosive substance" had been thrown.
"It was identified by a pH paper test as a strong acidic substance," she said.
Some witnesses have criticised security saying sufficient searches had not been carried out at the event but the club's owners have not commented.
The company behind the event tweeted it was co-operating with the police investigation.


A rare sports car built in the 1950s and found in a Devon barn will go under the hammer next month.

Only 276 Swallow Dorettis were made in the West Midlands and about 100 remain unaccounted for.
The car was designed chiefly for US car buyers, but this latest find was in Bovey Tracey.
It will be auctioned on 21 February with an estimate of about Â£11,000.
The Doretti, built by Swallow Coachbuilding in Walsall, was an attempt to attract car buyers on the west coast of America who liked Italian sounding sports car names.
But it was actually named after Dorothy Deen, who managed sales distribution in America.
Adverts boasted about its "100 mph elegance" and the car's acceleration of 0-60 mph in 12.3 seconds.
One even made an appearance in a Gregory Peck and Fred Astaire film called On the Beach.
Most of the cars made at the time were left-hand drive. However the one discovered in Devon is a right hand drive.
Rendells Stonepark, the auctioneer and valuer which discovered the car, said although it was built at some stage between 1954 and 1955, it carries a 1965 registration plate.
Its last MoT test is believed to have been 1976 in Hammersmith, west London.


Brazilian Kaka has left Real Madrid and rejoined former club AC Milan.

The 31-year-old forward cost Real £56m when he joined them from the Italians in June 2009, but it is believed he has gone back to Milan on a free transfer.
The 2007 World Player of the Year has signed a two-year deal.
Appearances: 120
Cost per game: £466,666
Goals: 29
Cost per goal: £1,931,034
Games to goals ratio: 4.14
Honours: La Liga (2011-12), Copa del Rey (2010-11), Spanish Supercup (2012)
His exit comes in the wake of Gareth Bale's arrival at Real, a move which pushed Kaka further down the pecking order and meant he wanted to leave before the transfer window closed.
Talks between the player, Real president Florentino Perez and AC Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani lasted until the early hours of Monday morning.
A Milan statement said: "Last night after 20:00 CET, thanks to the traditionally good relationship between the two clubs, Real Madrid and Milan reached and formalised an agreement for the transfer of Ricardo Kaka into Rossonero colours.
"And overnight, a little before 03:00 CET in the morning, an agreement was reached with the world-class Brazilian."
After leaving Sao Paolo as a teenager in 2003, Kaka won the Champions League and a Scudetto during his six years in Milan, and landed the prestigious Ballon d'Or award in 2007.
During his time with Real he lifted the Primera Division trophy, the Copa del Rey and the Spanish Supercup.
Kaka has scored 29 goals in 87 appearances for Brazil and played at three World Cups.


Brendan Rodgers remains "super ambitious", with the Celtic manager aiming for further success after clinching the title.

Celtic beat Hearts 5-0 on Sunday to wrap up the Premiership with eight games to spare.
"I said when I came that, when I move on from here, whether the club move me on or I decide to go, I want this club to be in a better place," said Rodgers.
"I'm nowhere near that stage - I've got a lot left to fulfil here."
Rodgers is unbeaten in 37 domestic matches as Celtic chase a possible treble in his debut campaign.
The only blemish came in Europe, with the club failing to register a win in a tough Champions League group.
The former Liverpool and Swansea City boss has spoken often about his desire to turn Celtic into Champions League regulars, but his success in Scotland has already led to speculation about a move back south.
"I'm super ambitious and I told the players that when I came, but I have ambition for myself and for them to be the very best that we can," added the 44-year-old.
"All I can say is that I'm very, very happy in every aspect of my life - I'm in my dream job. That's the reality of it.
"I signed a four-year contract with Liverpool and 18 months later I was fired. I'm at the stage now where I probably appreciate more what I have.
"I've worked with many clubs in the past, but it's got a different feeling here."
Celtic's success was underlined last month when Scotland head coach Gordon Strachan chose six players from his former club to start in the World Cup qualifying win over Slovenia.
Craig Gordon, Kieran Tierney, Scott Brown, Stuart Armstrong, James Forrest and Leigh Griffiths all played in the 1-0 victory at Hampden and Rodgers thinks Callum McGregor could join them in future.
"Callum McGregor never gets a mention," he said of the uncapped 23-year-old.
"We have all the stars, all the goals; this was a boy who was absolutely brilliant yesterday.
"I have absolutely no doubt that if Gordon is looking for someone who is technically gifted, who can keep the ball, who understands football tactically, a player who never wavers in mentality - he is seven or eight out of 10 every game he plays - who has got Champions League experience then you wouldn't go too far wrong with Callum in your squad.
"He played in five position for me this season. Wide on the right against Barcelona, centre of midfield, the side of a diamond, he has played left-back and is one of those under-rated, under-valued players, but not by myself and the coaching team.
"I had a similar player at Liverpool in Joe Allen and it wasn't probably until he went to the European Championships and got voted into the team of the tournament that people began to sit up and take a bit of notice of him.
"These guys that are honest guys, they don't look for glory, they are very efficient, effective in the team.
"Callum has this unbelievable habit where he rarely gives the ball away and, in my teams, that is critical. This guy is a proper young footballer."


Tom Daley won diving bronze for Great Britain with a nerveless display in the men's 10m platform, as USA's David Boudia took gold.

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I went in to it with a do-or-die mentality
Roared on by a sell-out crowd of 17,500, the 18-year-old delivered six dives of consistent excellence.
China's Qiu Bo, the world champion and firm favourite coming into the final, had to settle for silver.
"The main aim here was to get a medal," said Daley. "Olympic bronze medal - I can't believe it!"
Bo settling for silver seemed unlikely on Friday evening when he dominated the qualifying session, with Daley down in 15th.
But Daley gave a glimpse of his fine form this season in Saturday morning's semi-final, only to save the very best until it really mattered.
"Boudia was a class act. A masterclass. But well done Tom Daley. Under all that pressure and expectation, he delivered six out of six dives. I do not have the words to express how proud I am. What an achievement."
The British star took a tiny lead into the last round of dives, but needed to be perfect as his closest rivals were both trying more technically difficult dives.
The Plymouth-born teenager nearly managed it, but his score of 90.75 left him vulnerable to Boudia and Bo diving after him.
Boudia rose to the challenge, nailing his effort to score 102.60, 1.80 points better than Qiu's effort, which proved to be the winning margin for the American.
Daley's total was 9.90 points lower than Qiu's, but there was no sense of disappointment from the Brit or his entourage.
Whilst Boudia celebrated with his coach and team-mate Nicholas McCrory, Daley's friends and family threw him into the pool and jumped in afterwards to celebrate a famous medal.
"To be honest, I was very nervous. I went in to it with a do-or-die mentality," said Daley.
"I put everything into it. I was in first place going into the last round, but didn't have the degree of difficulty I needed [to hold on for gold]."
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It could have all been so very different for Daley who, amid considerable confusion in the packed Aquatics Centre, told his coach Andy Banks that he had been put off by flashes from cameras in the crowd during his first dive.
After a brief discussion, the judges granted Daley a re-dive and he grabbed his second chance to score 91.80 points, 16.20 more than his first effort.
Daley finished over 29 points ahead of fourth-placed diver Victor Minibaev, meaning he would have won bronze regardless of the re-dive.
"The retaken dive is one downside to having a home crowd," he said.
A bronze medal - only the seventh medal Britain has ever won in Olympic diving - more than makes up for the disappointment of finishing fourth in the 10m synchronised event with Peter Waterfield last week.
It is also an indication of what Daley can still achieve in the sport and a fitting tribute to his beloved father, who died of cancer last year.


BP faces a fine of up to $13.7bn (£9bn) after a US judge ruled that the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill was smaller than initially feared.

His ruling put the spill at 3.2 million barrels - the US government had estimated it at 4.09 million barrels.
It shields the oil giant from what could have been a $17.6bn fine. A final figure is expected later this month.
The case relating to the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion was heard in New Orleans.
In his ruling the judge said BP's response to the disaster had not been grossly negligent.
However, he stuck to his earlier decision that it had been grossly negligent leading up to the explosion, in which 11 men aboard the drilling rig were killed.
BP is appealing against that decision.
These latest penalties under the US Clean Water Act would be in addition to more than $42bn BP has set aside or spent already on clean-up, compensation and fines.
The company has sold at least $39bn in assets since the spill.
In 2012, BP accepted criminal responsibility for the disaster and agreed to pay $4.5bn to the US government, thus settling its criminal liability in the spill.
These latest legal efforts have focused on the amount of civil penalties the firm must pay, both to businesses and individuals affected by the spill and to cover environmental clean-up costs.
In a short statement released on Friday, BP said that it "is continuing to review the court's decision".
US-listed shares of BP rose about 1% to $36.20 in after-hours trading.


Investigators looking into the death of a Fife man in police custody have confirmed that the arresting officers have agreed to provide statements.

Sheku Bayoh, 31, was held following an incident in Hayfield Road, Kirkcaldy, on 3 May but died in custody.
His relatives claimed they were told five versions of what happened.
The Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (PIRC) said they had made several attempts to get statements from the officers concerned.
A spokeswoman said: "The PIRC has been leading on the investigation into the death in custody of Sheku Bayoh and since the hours following his death on Sunday 3 May 2015, has made several attempts to secure statements from the arresting officers.
"Those officers have now agreed to provide statements to the PIRC and now that the PIRC is in the process of gathering the material, it will be considered along with the information already gathered throughout the course of the investigation to date."
Last month family lawyer Aamer Anwar said Mr Bayoh, who had two young sons, was a "well-liked, peaceful and healthy young man" who had no previous history of violence.
Earlier this week a Scottish Police Federation lawyer said Mr Bayoh's family had promoted a "completely inaccurate and misleading account" of the initial incident and what followed.
Peter Watson of PBW Law said on Tuesday: "The officer injured remains off work, has had several hospital visits and is now in rehabilitation.
"An examination by a leading consultant confirms her injuries were significant. The injuries have been documented and photographed.
"The officers involved have never refused to provide statements. It was agreed at the outset with the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (PIRC) that they would revert to us when they wanted statements and when they were clear on the basis that statements were to be given."
In response, Mr Anwar said: "This case is about the death of a young man Sheku Bayoh and his family have every right to seek answers.
"PIRC told us from day one, that the nine police officers had refused to speak to them or even provide statements since the 3rd May, that has now been confirmed by PIRC as the truth and vindicates the family's position."
Mr Anwar added: "The Bayoh family are deeply upset and angry that they have been accused of being liars. I would have hoped that those representing Police Officers would have checked the actual facts before attacking the family and myself so publicly."


Former England all-rounder Chris Lewis will visit every first-class county before the season to try to ensure no player follows his path into crime.

Lewis, 48, was released from prison in 2015 after serving less than half of a 13-year sentence for drug smuggling.
"I've been through the experience - a lot has happened," he told BBC Sport.
"I could help young players to avoid some of the pitfalls that you may face in a professional career in modern-day sport."
Lewis, who played 32 Tests for England between 1990 and 1996, added: "There are pressures of being a top sportsman, but we're in a very privileged position. After all, you're doing the thing that you love.
"But there's not necessarily enough thought going into the planning because of all the money that can be around you, because of a feeling that you can be invincible."
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Lewis was convicted in 2009 after being caught smuggling liquid cocaine into Britain from St Lucia.
He has struggled to make ends meet since he left prison in June 2015, but earns some income through office work.
His tour of the 18 first-class counties has been organised by the Professional Cricketers' Association and the only payment Lewis will receive is his travel expenses.
''One decision, or a couple of decisions, made over a lifetime for me shouldn't necessarily define who you are," added Lewis, who will begin his tour at his old county Leicestershire on Monday.
"You look at that decision you say, 'You know what? I went the wrong way there.'
"With that experience I can do this and I can do that and you keep on moving. Once you've recognised you've made the wrong choice, you keep moving."
The County Championship season starts on 10 April.
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Bristol chairman Chris Booy says that the Premiership strugglers will "walk promotion" back to the top flight if they are relegated to the Championship.

Speaking before Friday's 32-14 loss to Gloucester left Bristol seven points adrift at the bottom, Booy vowed they will "never be in this position again".
Last May, the Ashton Gate club returned to the top tier after seven years away.
"We are going to be even stronger next season than this season, whatever happens," Booy told BBC Radio Bristol.
"No disrespect to the Championship but, with the team we are going to take into the Championship, automatic promotion - we would walk it.
"We thought we were going to be good enough this season, but we weren't. So we're struggling. But we're not going to do it again.
"If the worst does happen and we get relegated, and then we'll come up. We're not going to be struggling. We're going to go straight into the top half, and then obviously our ambition is to win Europe."
Connacht boss Pat Lam will arrive as Bristol's new head coach this summer, following Mark Tainton's spell as interim head coach since director of rugby Andy Robinson was sacked in November.
Lam's squad for next season has already been added to with experienced internationals - regardless of the division Bristol will play in - including Bordeaux's Ireland fly-half Ian Madigan.
"Pat Lam is probably one of the best young coaches in the world," added Booy. "He's going to build an exciting, young team.
"The important thing with [billionaire owner] Steve Lansdown's backing is that we're building this club for the future and we're never, ever going to be in this position again."
Only the Championship winners will be promoted at the end of the 2017-18 season, after the existing play-off system was scrapped.
Booy had advocated such a change after Bristol missed out on promotion via the play-offs in 2014-15 despite finishing top of the table.
Bristol's chances of escaping relegation this term look slim because, with four games remaining, they must face all the current top-three sides - Exeter, Wasps and then Saracens - prior to hosting Newcastle Falcons on the final day.
They have lost 15 of their 18 league games so far this term, conceding 567 points.
"We have made mistakes," said Booy. "We have got some good players but we did not sign that extra experience, extra quality, that all the other sides have.
"We have lacked those three, four or five players of international experience who can grind a game out.
"Now we are signing those players, so next season we'll be in a much stronger position."


The far-right presidential candidate in France, Marine Le Pen, has condemned what she calls security lapses, as the nation prepares to vote in the shadow of a terror attack.

A gunman was shot dead in Paris on Thursday after killing a policeman.
Ms Le Pen has pledged to expel radical Islamists and restore border checks.
Another frontrunner, Emmanuel Macron, stressed that France must not panic, because that would play into the terrorists' hands.
The late-night attack on the capital's famous Champs Elysees Avenue, which also left two officers wounded, made security a pressing issue ahead of Sunday's first round of voting in the presidential election.
Paris gunman was 'on police terror radar'
Who are the candidates?
French election quick guide
Election explained in five charts
The main candidates called off rallies on what would have been the final day of campaigning.
Former conservative Prime Minister FranÃ§ois Fillon said the next president's priority should be fighting "Islamist totalitarianism".
Ms Le Pen, leader of the National Front (FN), called for France's border controls to be reinstated immediately, and for foreigners on security watch lists to be expelled.
Security officials say the gunman was known to them and his home in Chelles, in the eastern suburbs of Paris, has been searched. He had been identified as a potential radical Islamist.
The so-called Islamic State group has said it was behind the attack in Paris - a city still scarred by bloody IS attacks in 2015.
"We must fight barbarism - none of the French governments for the past 10 years has done enough," Ms Le Pen said.
She spoke of "incredible lapses in the justice system".
Speaking on RTL radio, the liberal centrist Mr Macron told French voters they should "not allow fear to be exploited" by terrorists.
"The assailants want death, symbolism, to sow panic, to disrupt the democratic process - the presidential election," he said.
An Elabe opinion poll, carried out before the shooting on the Champs Elysees, showed Mr Macron with 24% in the first round, and Ms Le Pen falling back slightly to 21.5%.
Mr Fillon was close behind on 20% and the far left's Jean-Luc MÃ©lenchon on 19.5%.


A mother whose two daughters swam for eight hours to safety when their boat sank in rough seas in Indonesia has spoken of their ordeal.

Joan Ostojic's daughters Katherine, 21, and Alice, 19, were on a boat carrying 25 people that went down between Lombok and the Komodo Islands on Saturday.
They sat on the semi-submerged vessel's roof for 10 hours before embarking on their swim, their mother said.
Mrs Ostojic, from Stevenage, said: "It's a relief that they are safe."
She added: "They are fine, carrying on with their travels, and will be home shortly."
Travellers from New Zealand, Spain, France, Switzerland and the Netherlands were among those rescued after the boat hit a reef near Sangeang Api, a volcanic island off Sumbawa, in bad weather during the three-day journey.
Mrs Ostojic said the girls sent an email to her and her husband Peter saying they had heard everyone had been found.
They also revealed that after the boat sank in the middle of the night, they swam for eight hours to the shore before seeing the lights of some fishermen and being rescued, their mother said.
The Foreign Office said Alice Ostojic had been been travelling through Australia and south-east Asia as part of her gap year.
Katherine, who is at Bristol University studying aerospace engineering, had joined her for a month in Indonesia.
After being rescued, the girls spent the night on the nearby uninhabited volcanic island, where they were given food and water by fishermen, before they were taken to Bima in Sumbawa.
The girls lost everything in the accident apart from their passports, debit cards and cash.


Edinburgh City manager Gary Jardine paid tribute to his players after they beat East Stirlingshire to reach the Scottish Professional Football League.

City, who won the Lowland League and then a pyramid play-off against Highland League winners Cove Rangers, beat Shire 1-0 at Ochilview.
That win sealed a 2-1 aggregate success against the League Two bottom side.
"These boys have worked so hard. To get this opportunity now, they deserve every minute of it," said Jardine.
"It's crazy. Now it's happened, my head is spinning.
"It's the culmination of five, six years of real hard work and I'm really pleased for everybody at the club. It means everything."
City had previously applied to join the League when first Airdrie and then Gretna went into liquidation, but missed out on both occasions.
The Lowland League began in 2013, with the first pyramid play-off series taking place at the end of last season.
There was no change to the make-up of the SPFL on that occasion but Edinburgh will now replace East Stirling in League Two, with Shire dropping into the Lowland League.
Edinburgh's winning penalty at Ochilview was scored by veteran midfielder Dougie Gair, with less than four minutes left.
"Dougie has scored something like 53 penalties out of 55 and has been here for 16 years, man and boy," Jardine said.  "He has always been a penalty taker.
"We got knocked out on penalties by Brora Rangers last year so I suppose it is fitting that this year we have got the joy of scoring one to go up.
"Gordon Donaldson is only 25 and is in his 21st year at the club. No-one has given him a chance.
"Not one of them apart from Joe Mbu has played in the league, so they really deserve this opportunity."
But Mbu, a 34-year-old Cameroonian who previously played for Cowdenbeath and East Fife, will not be around to help guide the club through their first season of senior football.
"That was Joe's last game," Jardine said. "He will be true to his partner, he has got a wee boy to look after now.
"Last season was going to be his last but he always said he was desperate to get us up. He gave it another year, and he was magnificent today.
"I have likened him to Dave Mackay and that is the effect he has had on this club."
So what now for City, who play at the Meadowbank Arena, a 16,500-capacity stadium with 7,500 seats that they share with Leith Athletic, and the former home of Meadowbank Thistle, who relocated to become Livingston in 1995?
"We are at Meadowbank and there are plans to renovate it or knock it down in a year's time," Jardine added.
"But they are not concrete plans, so we will have another year at Meadowbank and that is built for football in League Two."
As for East Stirlingshire, their 116-year stay in the Scottish Football League is over, but chairman Alan Archibald is confident about their future.
"You cut your cloth accordingly.," he told BBC Scotland. "The future's fine, it's just plan B. There's a plan A and a plan B. Unfortunately, it's plan B.
"I've got a very competent accountant who makes sure that we've got plans in place.
"I've got a good solid board behind me and I've got fans who I know won't walk away and we've got sponsors who'll stick by us.
"I'm confident we've got plans in place, we've got people behind the scenes that'll help us try and turn this round."
Asked about the future of the players and manager Craig Tully, Archibald added: "We'll make a decision on that at the start of the week."


People have been using Your Questions to tell us what they want to know about the West Midlands.

One person asked whether Solihull had ever been part of Birmingham.
We were also asked when the platforms at Birmingham New Street station were built underground and why.
And we've received a few questions about statues and sculptures around the city. Here are some of the answers.
Birmingham's rich manufacturing history, busy workshops and pioneering art school are often credited as moulding its diverse landscape of public art. All around the city there are modern and classic pieces to be enjoyed.
Some sculptures, like the bronze Bull outside the Bulling shopping centre are well-known. But others are in out of the way locations where their stories are waiting to be unlocked.
Birmingham resident Liz Dexter blogged about her and best friend Emma Volante's quest to find out about the silver heart shaped padlock tucked between a car dealership and a lamppost on Newhall Hill in the Jewellery Quarter.
They discovered the lock marked the start of the Charm Bracelet Pavement Trail, designed by Birmingham public artists Mick Thacker and Mark Renn.
Read more here: The secrets of Birmingham's sculptures unlocked
Network Rail told us the platforms went beneath ground level after the original 1854 station was demolished in 1964.
It reopened in 1967 to coincide with the electrification of the West Coast Mainline.
One of the reasons the platforms went underground was the first ever sale of "air rights" above the railway by British Rail leading to the construction of the Pallasades Shopping Centre in 1970.
Solihull Council told us: "It was previously Solihull Rural District Council from 1894 to 1932, then Solihull Urban District Council, part of Warwickshire, from 1932 to 1954.
"Then it became a borough, becoming a metropolitan borough in 1974."
Have you got a question about the West Midlands?
Is there something you have seen or heard that you would like us to investigate?
It could be a burning issue or something you have always wondered about the area or its people.
Use the tool below to send us your questions.
We could be in touch and your question could make the news.


Welsh mountain rescue teams have been given special white water training using money paid in fines by banks.

Three volunteers from Gwynedd have undergone four days training in swift-water rescue from grants funded by the Libor scandal penalties.
More than Â£150m collected by the UK government has been spent on armed services charities since 2011.
In 2014, a further Â£4m was set aside to include mountain rescue teams across Britain.
"I think many of us sat at home last winter watching the flood events unfold on TV and, as mountain rescue water teams were deployed from across Britain to help out, we wondered if there was more that we as a team could be doing," said Graham O'Hanlon from the Aberdyfi Search and Rescue team.
The result was the latest training event on the River Dee in Llangollen, alongside members from the South Snowdonia and Aberglaslyn mountain rescue teams.
"I like the idea that something motivated essentially from greed and selfishness is being invested back into volunteering and community," added Mr O'Hanlon.


Steve Evans says he is "loving" being Mansfield Town boss and has no regrets about dropping down to League Two.

Evans, who replaced Adam Murray as manager in November with the club in 18th, has taken the Stags to seventh and two points outside the play-offs.
The former Leeds United and Rotherham United boss said he had offers to manage at a higher level but was lured by the stability at Mansfield.
"I didn't want to go to a firefight," Evans, 54, told BBC Radio Nottingham.
"I wanted to go in somewhere that was really secure and somewhere that would back it. I am absolutely loving it."
Evans could have remained at Championship level and was also heavily linked with the then vacant managerial job at League One Charlton Athletic.
But he is convinced he made the correct decision despite dropping two divisions from his last role at Leeds.
Saturday's win over Barnet was their sixth in eight unbeaten matches since the 1-1 draw against Doncaster on New Year's Eve.
The Stags made eight signings in the January transfer window - something Evans said was vital if they wanted to challenge for promotion.
"We said we would organise the football club structurally and we needed support in the transfer window," he added.
"If we didn't change it in the transfer window we would probably be in a battle at the bottom. You are fortunate when a chairman gives you his blessing, but he also asked us to balance it.
"We have got eight out and eight out and probably levelled the money up from a business point of view. The chairman will be pleased because he has got a better product."


An unprecedented spate of burglaries on the Isle of Man continued on Tuesday with the first break-ins in Ramsey.

Police said jewellery was taken from two properties in Barrule Park during the day - taking the total to 32 homes in less than a fortnight.
Insp Derek Flint said 120 incident logs were completed on Tuesday compared to 37 for the same period last year.
Isle of Man residents have been warned by police not to attempt vigilante-style attacks on attempted burglars.
The warning follows what police labelled "wild speculation" on social media.
Insp Flint said "circulating untested information on Facebook puts others at risk and people must stop doing this".
He added: "A call to us with information is much more productive than the wild speculation that some individuals are resorting to on social media.
"Police are working flat out to catch those responsible but that, contrary to speculation, we haven't brought in any officers from the UK.
"This is being managed within our own resources."
Break-ins or attempted break-ins have been reported in Douglas, Onchan, Castletown, Port St Mary, Lonan and Ramsey.
Police are again asking for homeowners to remain vigilant.


Sir Dave Brailsford says Team Sky can be trusted "100%", despite "regrettable" questions over Sir Bradley Wiggins' medical records.

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Wiggins and Team Sky boss Brailsford have come under scrutiny since information on the rider's authorised use of banned drugs to treat a medical condition were released by hackers.
There are also questions over a medical package he received in 2011.
"Can people believe in Team Sky? 100%," Brailsford told the BBC.
UK Anti-Doping (Ukad) has been investigating allegations of doping in cycling after it emerged a mystery medical package was delivered to a Team Sky doctor for Wiggins on the final day of the 2011 Criterium du Dauphine, which the Briton won.
Brailsford, the former performance director of British Cycling, last month told a parliamentary select committee he understood the package contained a legal decongestant, Fluimucil.
Ukad chairman David Kenworthy last week told BBC Sport he found the evidence of Brailsford and British Cycling president Bob Howden "extraordinary", saying the answers to the select committee on the content of the medical package were "very disappointing".
But when this was put to Brailsford, he answered: "The only extraordinary thing I could see was that he [Kenworthy] actually commented on the whole process himself.
"There is an open investigation that is still ongoing."
Wiggins, 36, announced his retirement from cycling last month. Britain's most decorated Olympian's use of therapeutic use exemptions (TUEs) came to light after his confidential medical information was leaked by hackers 'Fancy Bears'.
TUEs allow the use of otherwise banned substances if athletes have a genuine medical need, and Wiggins, who has asthma, said he took them to "put himself back on a level playing field".
There is no suggestion Wiggins, British Cycling or Team Sky have broken any rules.
"It is regrettable," added Brailsford. "But equally the test of time is the key thing, and over time we will continue to perform at the highest level, continue to do it the right way, continue to give people a reason to get behind us and feel proud of our achievements.
"The judgement of what happened in the past will be made in the appropriate time, but for me we have done it the right way, and we'll continue to do it the right way.
He added: "I'm proud in what I've done, I've been doing this a long time, and I've been doing it for 20 years. I'm very much focused on the season ahead."


Royal Bank of Scotland has reported a half-year loss after setting aside more money for repaying customers and potential legal settlements.

The £153m loss for the six months to the end of June compares with a £1.43bn profit a year ago.
Restructuring costs almost tripled to £1.5bn amid efforts by chief executive Ross McEwan to cut staff and refocus the bank on the UK.
The lender set aside £1.3bn for lawsuits and customer recompense.
Another £459m was earmarked mainly for litigation costs in the second quarter. Most of those are likely to arise from sales of mortgage-backed securities in the US, said the bank.
In May, RBS and Japanese bank Nomura were ordered to pay $806m between them for making false statements when selling the mortgage-backed bonds to US agencies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The bank's net profit rose to £293m for the three months to the end of June.
"There's a lot of noise," Mr McEwan told BBC Radio 4's Today programme, referring to fines and probable lawsuits, "but underneath is a very strong bank."
"These things are very distracting," he added, "so we need to face into these and put our energies into creating a better bank here in the UK."
RBS was one of six banks fined a total of about £2.8bn for failing to stop traders trying to manipulate currency markets last year.
RBS has already paid £399m in fines to US and UK regulators over the forex scandal.
The bank's capital strength improved after selling a stake in US lender Citizens.
Costs for the bank have fallen, which finance director Ewen Stevenson attributed to smaller staff costs and "getting out of expensive real estate" on a conference call with journalists.


The number of lions in Africa is rapidly dropping, except in highly-managed areas in the south of the continent, a study has found.

It suggests that lion populations in unprotected areas could be cut in half over the next two decades.
The paper's authors say lions should now be upgraded to an endangered species in Central and West Africa.
The loss of habitat, hunting, and a demand for traditional medicine have all contributed to population decline.
Lions are currently considered "vulnerable" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, but endangered status means they would be considered at "a very high risk of extinction in the wild".
The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, says "many lion populations are either now gone or expected to disappear within the next few decades".
African lion populations are declining everywhere on the continent, with the exception of Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, which are having success with what the paper calls "small, fenced, intensively managed, and funded reserves".
There is a 67% chance that lions in West and Central Africa will decline by half within 20 years, while East African populations have a 37% chance of being halved in the same time.
Those predictions are based on trends in 47 lion populations, containing more than 8,200 animals.
The decline could lead to a reversal of previous trends, making the protected, managed populations of southern Africa more viable than the East African savannah.
A reduction in lion numbers could also change the local ecosystems, "with the lion no longer playing a pivotal role as apex predator", the study says.
The authors also warned that the African lion could come to rely on the small, managed reserves, "and may no longer be a flagship species of the once vast natural ecosystems across the rest of the continent."


The funeral of Pte Conor McPherson, who was shot dead during an army training exercise, will take place in Paisley later.

The 24-year-old soldier was serving with The Black Watch, the 3rd Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Scotland when he died.
No-one has been arrested over Pte McPherson's shooting in Otterburn, Northumberland, on 22 August.
He was described by his commanding officer as "hugely committed".


A former youth worker convicted of sexually abusing two boys aged five and 14 has been ordered to serve at least five years in jail.

James Campbell, from Glasgow, was placed on a lifelong restriction order by judge Tom Hughes QC because of the danger he poses to the public.
The 58-year-old ran a YMCA project group aimed at helping troubled youths escape gang culture.
The offences were committed between 1992 and 1997.
Sentencing Campbell at the High Court in Glasgow, the judge said: "You were working as a youth worker and had access to both victims. You used your position of trust to carry out these offences.
"It is a matter of great concern that your employers were made aware of concerns from fellow workers and nothing was done about the matter."
When police officers raided Campbell's home they found 187,000 images of child sex abuse, including 50 photographs of the 14-year-old he abused.
Jurors heard how he contacted the 14-year-old victim, now 37, on Facebook in 2015, with a message that read: "Thanks for replying. Don't deserve it really. Been trying to find you since 1998 on and off. Well, sorry for the past."
Campbell claimed he first met the boy at Maryhill Burgh hall and offered him and his friend money to move a washing machine.
He said he paid the boy each week to wash the stairs in his close.
But the victim told the jury that Campbell made sexual and inappropriate remarks to him and offered money for sex acts.
Campbell's other victim was just five and described as a "a lost soul" when he was abused at the community centre where Campbell's YMCA project was based.
The victim, who is now 26, had Â£300 under his bed - "bribe" money which Campbell had given him.
But Campbell described both victims as "liars" and claimed they stole the cash from him.
James Little, a careers advisor at the project run by Campbell from 1996 to 1997, said he had contacted the police over concerns for the five-year-old in 1998 - but nothing was done.
Mr Little told prosecutor Kath Harper: "He seemed untouchable. Any concerns were swept under the carpet no matter how many times myself and others went to the YMCA about him."
He added: "I saw that little boy outside the project building and inside the project building quite a lot. He would always be in the office area with Mr Campbell.
"My gut instinct was he shouldn't be there. The project was for 12 to 20-year-olds. When I challenged the young boy being there it was rubbished or dismissed."
Campbell admitted possession of the child sex abuse images
He has been placed on the sex offenders' register.


A dramatic light show was witnessed over Blackburn on Thursday as thunder and lightning ended the hot spell.

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2 July 2015 Last updated at 11:59 BST
The footage - courtesy of Rizwan Aziz - was recorded in slow motion.


So as I mentioned a few weeks ago, Ed Miliband is about to confirm his plan to cut student tuition fees from £9,000 to £6,000.

What has been leaked overnight is that in some way he will pay for the £2bn-or-so upfront costs with cuts to tax reliefs on pensions.
All of this, right now, begs a huge number of questions.
Here are a few for the Labour leader to answer when he gives the detail of the reform at midday.
Can he make sure that the fee cut doesn't disproportionately help future high earners?
The Institute of Fiscal Studies calculates that a cut in fees from £9000 to £6000 will give almost zero help to graduates who will be in the bottom 50% of earners, such as teachers - in that under the current system they would expect to have much of their student debt written off when they enter their 50s.
Or to put it another way, cutting the fees would largely and exclusively help those who under the current system pay them off rapidly because they are on high earnings.
In other words, there is a likelihood that Ed Miliband will be helping graduates who go to work for hedge funds and Goldman Sachs.
Which he might say is a good thing, if those young hedgies and investment bankers come from poor families.
But if the IFS points out - which it plans to do - that he is disproportionately helping the top 10-20% of earners, that might be embarrassing to him.
There is obviously another set of issues around the funding of our universities - reassuring them that they will have the funds and autonomy to deliver the world class skills that the UK's economic future requires. Many of them have already publicly stated their opposition to the fee cut.
And finally there are bound to be big issues about the fairness or otherwise of whatever further tax raid there is on pension savings.
In recent years, our pensions have been the seemingly bottomless purse from which Tory and Labour chancellors have extracted many billions, from abolishing the tax credit for pension funds on dividends, to progressively shrinking the size of our pension pots, to limiting the amount we can put into pensions each year.
For Labour's shadow chancellor there have however been quite a few options for milking our pensions even more. They include:
If he goes with logic, he may shrink the size of the tax-free lump sum available on retirement. Since it has always seemed a bit odd to some that there should be tax breaks both on saving and on cashing in a pension.
But although limiting the tax breaks to the saving might appear rational, it would certainly cause a sharp intake of breath for those currently approaching retirement and already banking on that lovely tax-free nest egg.
As for limiting tax relief on saving, it could potentially raise billions if it was targeted on all 40% rate earners. But it would be quite a brave Labour Party leader who announced a thinly disguised tax rise for the more than four million households in this tax bracket. And neither Ed Balls or Ed Miliband would presumably wish to sign what some would see as a general election suicide pact.


Tate Gallery says "new information" has emerged over a John Constable painting in its collection thought to have been stolen by the Nazis.

It has asked for a review of a recommendation that it should return the work to the heirs of the original owner.
A committee of government-appointed experts said last year that the gallery had "a moral obligation" to return it.
The oil painting became part of the Tate's collection in 1986.
The 1824 work - entitled Beaching A Boat, Brighton - was understood to have been looted and smuggled out of war-time Hungary.
It was first recorded in London in 1962, and was donated to the Tate by Mrs PM Rainsford.
However, "new information has come to light on the history of the painting," said a Tate statement.
"This was reviewed by Tate. The Tate Trustees have now approached the Secretary of State to invite the Spoliation Advisory Panel to review the new information. We cannot comment further at this stage."
The panel resolves claims from people, or their heirs, who lost property during the Nazi era, which is now held in UK national collections.
The DCMS said it was "considering the information received from the Tate trustees and a decision will be made in due course".
After the Spoliation Advisory Panel's initial conclusion a year ago, Tate said it would recommend to its trustees that the work be returned to returned to the family of the original owner, who died in 1958.
The report said the unnamed man was "a well-known Hungarian artist and connoisseur from a Jewish background" and described how he fled the 1944 Nazi invasion and "went into hiding".
The claimants discovered two years ago that the painting by Constable had ended up in Tate's collection. The claim was formally submitted to the spoliation panel in April 2013.


The structure of a London taxi driver's brain changes during the gruelling process of learning the quickest way around the capital, scans reveal.

Dozens of trainee drivers had MRI scans before and after they acquired "The Knowledge", memorising hundreds of journeys and street names.
The University College London team, writing in Current Biology, found brain parts linked to memory grew bigger.
They said it proved the brain could adapt to new tasks, even in adulthood.
Earlier studies of the brain of the cabbie had already noted the increase in "grey matter" in the hippocampus, an area found at the base of the brain.
However this research tried to work out if the change had happened during the intensive learning period prior to starting work, or on the job itself.
They scanned a total of 79 trainees, just before they started to learn the "All-London" Knowledge, which can take between two and four years to complete.
Would-be taxi drivers have to learn 320 routes within a six mile radius of Charing Cross, which covers a mind-boggling 25,000 streets and 20,000 landmarks and places of interest.
Throughout the process, any changes to their brains were mapped by regular MRI scans.
Compared with similar scans from non-taxi drivers, those who had attempted the Knowledge had increased the size of the posterior hippocampus - the rear section of the hippocampus which lies at the front of the brain.
As would be expected, they were better at memory tasks involving London landmarks than the non-cabbies, but this advantage appeared to come at a price, as the non-cabbies outperformed them in other memory tasks, such as recalling complex visual information.
Prof Eleanor Maguire, who led the study, said: "The human brain remains 'plastic', even in adult life, allowing it to adapt when we learn new tasks.
"By following the trainee taxi drivers over time as they acquired - or failed to acquire - the Knowledge, a uniquely challenging spatial memory task, we have seen directly and within individuals how the structure of the hippocampus can change with external stimulation.
"This offers encouragement for adults who want to learn new skills later in life."
The reasons why the brain was able to adapt remain unclear, although the hippocampus is one of the few areas of the brain in which new cells can grow.
Dr John Williams, head of neuroscience and mental health at the Wellcome Trust, which helped fund the research, said: "Only a few studies have shown direct evidence for plasticity in the adult human brain related to vital functions such as memory, so this new work makes an important contribution."


Audit Scotland has warned of "significant issues" in Scottish police accounts, with a potential funding gap of £85m developing by 2018/19.

Auditor General Caroline Gardner said Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority "must provide stronger leadership" on financial management.
The report came as the Inspector of Constabulary warned of budget savings impacting on police effectiveness.
The SPA said "immediate action" would be taken over "weaknesses" identified.
The group is to appoint an interim chief financial officer to oversee the management of the SPA and Police Scotland.
Deputy Chief Constable Neil Richardson said the "overall performance of Police Scotland remains strong".
Finance secretary John Swinney also announced an extra £55m of funding for police in this week's draft budget.
Audit Scotland has submitted its second report of the year to the Scottish Parliament on the Scottish Police Authority's 2014/15 accounts.
The report said that incomplete records and poor financial management delayed the audit of SPA's accounts, and "substantial corrections" were needed before completion.
Ms Gardner said that while some progress had been made towards creating a long-term financial strategy, it had been slow.
She said this was "critical" as the SPA and Police Scotland could face a funding gap of about £85m by 2018/19.
She said: "I first reported on the need for a long-term financial strategy for the service in November 2013. What was once important has now become critical, given the scale of the challenges ahead.
"The Scottish Police Authority and Police Scotland must collectively provide stronger leadership in strategic and operational financial management. This is essential if they are to deliver effective modern policing for the public and ensure their long-term financial sustainability."
SPA chairman Andrew Flanagan said "immediate action" would be taken to address the weaknesses identified in the audit, including the appointment of an interim chief financial officer in January.
He said: "We fully acknowledge the recommendations in the audit report that significant improvements are required in financial processes and controls within policing. Audit Scotland has described the issues identified in the audit as exceptional.
"I agree and the SPA board has today taken immediate action to address them.
"The immediate objectives are to get our financial house in order to avoid a further critical audit report; to grip cost saving initiatives and minimise forecast overspend within the current financial year; prepare a policing budget for 2016-17 within the available resources announced this week by the Scottish government; and prepare a financial strategy that will provide policing with a sound basis on which to evolve a broader policing strategy for Scotland."
Deputy Chief Constable Richardson said: "As the HMICS annual report highlights, the overall performance of Police Scotland remains strong with officers and staff committed to providing a good service to our communities. It also praises the leadership and commitment of staff at all levels of Police Scotland in what has been a challenging year for the service.
"We acknowledge the ongoing demands on cyber crime and Police Scotland devotes substantial resources to preventing and dealing with online crime.
"Police Scotland remains committed to delivering effective local policing, building public confidence and ensuring equitable access to specialist services."
Meanwhile, Inspector of Constabulary Derek Penman warned in his annual report that the need to save money could reduce the effectiveness of officers.
He said Police Scotland continued to provide good service to communities despite challenging circumstances, but warned that budget pressures could affect that.
He welcomed a commitment to maintaining an additional 1,000 officers, but said they needed to be deployed in operational roles.
He said: "In the absence of a long-term vision of policing, a wider workforce strategy and a clear financial strategy, there is a real risk that financial savings will continue to focus primarily on reducing police staff."
Mr Penman also said there should be a "wider discussion" around police funding and a "re-forecasting of achievable savings", which he said could potentially offer greater flexibility on how police budgets could be spent.
A spokeswoman for the Scottish government said police budgets had been protected in the draft budget announced earlier in the week.
She said: "The commitments given in this week's Scottish government draft budget to increase the police revenue budget in real terms in every year of the next parliament - amounting to £100m, plus an additional £55m for change and transformation work in the next financial year - will put the police budget on a sustainable footing for future years."
However, opposition parties at Holyrood hit out at the "worrying" report.
Scottish Conservative MSP Alex Johnstone said it was "very difficult for Police Scotland to plan properly for the future and ensure our streets are safely patrolled while facing a black hole of tens of millions of pounds".
Scottish Labour's justice spokesman Graeme Pearson said the report "records the disarray that is the SPA", adding: "To have no robust financial management or strategic plan to deliver on behalf of Police Scotland is nothing short of criminal."
Alison McInnes of the Scottish Liberal Democrats added: "The Scottish government might have hoped to avoid scrutiny by sneaking these accounts out on the last day before the Christmas break, but we need urgent answers over how these problems will be addressed."


A strange whooshing noise has been waking Nottingham residents in the middle of the night.

The sound has been likened to that made by a jet engine, a hot air balloon or a giant blowtorch.
Some worried residents have contacted Nottinghamshire Police, who said the noise could be from machinery.
It has been heard for several weeks, with reports coming as far north as Wollaton and as far south as West Bridgford.
"For the last two mornings, I've heard a series of noises outside my house in Wollaton which sounds like a giant blowtorch," resident Hayley Compton said.
"We went outside and it was really loud, I looked up into the sky expecting either to see flames or a very close aircraft of some sort," she added, saying that the noise sounded like it was coming from somewhere in south Nottinghamshire.
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Another resident, Gemma Cann, phoned the police after hearing the noise repeatedly from about 04:30 BST on Friday.
"It sounded like a sort of explosion and then something coming out of something, like a balloon or something like that," she said.
"As I was talking to the police I said 'I can hear it now' and he said 'I can hear it too', so he could hear it from the police station."
BBC Radio Nottingham reporter Kevin Stanley heard the noise in Radford at about 07:15 BST on Saturday and again about half an hour later.
"To me it sounded like a whooshing noise which seemed to be passing from one place to another, like it was moving," he said.


Firefighters have tackled a blaze at a house in Lossiemouth in Moray.

The emergency services were called to the property on Prospect Terrace at about 19:10 on Thursday.
A spokesman for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said crews faced a "well established" blaze. No-one was injured.


Many parents take getting a school place for their child for granted.

But what if the child can't get a place because he or she has not been baptised?
That is the situation that faces one family in the Republic of Ireland, where the Catholic church controls 90% of schools.
Nikki Murphy is sitting in the front-room of her house in Terenure in south Dublin playing with her four-year-old son Reuben.
His toy helicopter and trucks are scattered on the floor.
She said she has applied without success to 15 local schools - Catholic, Church of Ireland, Methodist and Jewish - for a place for Reuben.
Why? Because he is not baptised and not a member of any religion in a state where the churches control 96% of all schools and give preference to their members rather than to local children.
She said: "Parents shouldn't really have to work this hard to get a school place for their child.
"These are state-funded schools, so, we're frustrated and very angry.
"There's a lot of stress, anxiety and sleepless nights.  We're desperate at the moment."
Nikki knows that the state must offer Reuben a school place, but it could be several miles away.
She said that might mean him having to stay overnight with her parents from Monday to Friday, given her and her husband's work commitments and Dublin's traffic.
Paddy Monahan's seven-month old son, Cormac, is also unbaptised.
And he is also at risk of not getting a local school place.
Paddy, a barrister, says it is unconstitutional to discriminate against children like his, and he has 16,000 signatures seeking a change in the law.
"I just want my kid to go to the local school around the corner," he said.
"It's 200 metres away and it's a really good school.
"It's paid for by taxpayers.  It doesn't bother me that it's owned by the Catholic Church.  It's paid for by us.  I just think it's good for kids to mix in their local school."
The Balbriggan Educate Together primary school in north county Dublin does not believe in separating children on the basis of beliefs.
Its pupils are of all religions and none.
There is a growing demand for places in such schools, which are still relatively small in number, reflecting both a more racially diverse and less religious population.
Mary McGrath and her husband, Richard Long, who are both atheists, currently have three children at school there.
Richard said: "From a personal point of view, the less religion they are taught, the happier I am."
Mary added that they "liked the multi-denominational ethos where they learn about all religions but where there is no faith formation and the family values of our home are still respected in the school day".
Aoife Leahy, another parent, said that in the Educate Together model "nobody is made to feel an outsider".
"Everyone is valued," she added.
"I don't think people set out to discriminate.
"But sometimes schools are using policies that are quite old that maybe need to be updated, and society here has changed a lot."
Society has, indeed, changed.
The numbers attending church have fallen sharply, partly as a result of modernisation and partly as a result of the child sex-abuse scandals by priests that were covered-up for decades by the Catholic hierarchy.
This year, the Republic of Ireland became the first country in the world to vote for same-sex marriage in a referendum - and by an overwhelming margin.
The Balbriggan Educate Together's principal, Dr Fintan McCutcheon, said he wished "that we didn't have a situation whereby over 95% of our schools represent the sectoral interests of an undemocratic body without any electoral mandate to run those schools".
He said he wished the Irish government "would address that issue with considerable urgency and expediency".
To meet the growing demand for more non-religious education, the Catholic Church has said it will divest itself of schools but it is not doing so fast enough, according to both its critics and the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin.
The Department of Education says schools should, in future, be obliged to take pupils based on proximity or how close they lived to the school, rather than membership of a particular religion.
But that will require a change in the law which may not be enacted before the general election expected early next year.
In the meantime, parents like Nikki Murphy are still anxiously seeking primary school places for their un-baptised children.


A bed has been found for a suicidal girl, a day after a judge criticised a lack of care provision available when she is freed from youth custody.

Sir James Munby, said there would be "blood on our hands" if the 17-year-old did not receive adequate supervision.
The girl, known as X, is due to be released in 10 days and was without a place at a secure unit.
Mike Prentice, NHS North's medical director, said the bed would available ahead of her release date.
"Following extensive assessments, the NHS has identified a bed for this young woman in a safe and appropriate care setting which will best meet her needs," he said.
The girl has tried to kill herself several times.
On Thursday, Sir James, the president of Family Division of the High Court, said society should be "ashamed" for not protecting a suicidal girl in secure custody and he called the situation "utterly shaming".
The judgement in the case of X - who is in the formal care of Cumbria County Council - revealed she was convicted at a youth court and has been detained in custody for almost six months.
An earlier ruling heard how unit staff had witnessed "a profoundly disturbing and distressing scene when X self-harmed by repeatedly banging her head and face against the wall".
Staff have said she has to be checked every 50 seconds when she is in the shower.
Sir James said: "I feel shame and embarrassment; shame, as a human being, as a citizen and as an agent of the State, embarrassment as President of the Family Division, and, as such, Head of Family Justice, that I can do no more for X".
Her case also provoked criticism about a lack of adequate mental health provision.
Earlier this week, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced that thousands more mental health workers were to be recruited by the NHS in England.
The government said an extra £1bn already promised for mental health services in England would fund the scheme - part of a pot of £1.3bn committed in 2016 to transform provision.


Police are searching the area around a tower block in Aberdeen where a woman and two men died in a disturbance.

Officers are investigating whether one of the men fell from a 12th floor balcony of the 19-storey Donside Court, in the Tillydrone area of the city.
Emergency services were called to the building at about 20:15 on Tuesday evening.
A witness has described hearing a woman screaming "help me, help me" before police arrived.
Police Scotland said it believed the incident was contained and there was not a threat to the wider community.
A blue forensics tent had been erected inside a police cordon at the foot of the building, close to the main entrance.
An eyewitness said they saw a man fall from the 12th floor of the building, which police confirmed they were pursuing as a line of inquiry.
Another witness, Toni Dey, 19, who lives a short distance away in Gordon's Mills Road, said she heard screaming from the block.
The mother of two said: "I heard some girl screaming 'Help me, help me', then about 10 minutes after I heard loads of screaming and shouting.
"I didn't call the police as I thought it was kids messing around, then I heard loads of police.
"It's very scary to think that something like that had happened. All I kept thinking was 'Why was that poor girl shouting help me?', and about a two-minute walk out my back door.
"I just moved in here in May and it's been so quiet. I was shocked to hear anything as I never normally do."
Another woman told BBC Scotland that she had known one of the men involved, describing him as a "nice boy".
Det Supt Dave McLaren said further information about the incident would be released in due course.
"At this time the investigation is in its very early stages," he said.
"However, the circumstances as they present at this time would indicate that this is a contained incident and we are not looking for any other person in relation to the deaths."
Police dismissed reports on social media that a police officer had been injured and said there was no suggestion the incident was terrorism-related.
Neighbour Susan Smith said police initially went up to the flat carrying what looked like a battering ram.
"There were loads and loads of police cars. I've never seen so many police cars. Four ambulance vans," she said.
"They took a lassie out and they were still trying to give the guy CPR. Then they put a tent up and the next thing forensics arrived.
"The police actually went in with a great thing like a battering ram at one point. Then they went in with stretchers and a chair thing - and came out with them empty."
Councillor Martin Greig, chairman of Aberdeen Community Safety Partnership, said: "There will be families grieving profoundly at this terrible news.
"Our sympathies are with those who have lost loved ones.
"The local community and the city will share feelings of shock at this violent incident."


Scotland's private sector grew last month, with output reaching the highest level since February, according to a new report.

Businesses put the growth down to expansion in the services sector, while manufacturing production also remained strong.
Meanwhile, cost pressures eased marginally, remaining steep overall.
The findings are contained in the Bank of Scotland's regional purchasing managers' index (PMI) for May.
However, growth remained below that of the UK as a whole.
The PMI for Scotland stood at 51.5 last month, up from March's four-month low of 50.1. It was 50.6 in April.
The index, which produces a single-figure measure of the month-on-month change in combined manufacturing and services output, indicates a rise in business confidence towards the next 12 months.
The firms surveyed in the report attributed confidence to "an unexpected economic upturn".
Fraser Sime, of Bank of Scotland, said: "Latest PMI data signalled the Scottish private sector moving up a gear, as growth reached a three-month high."
He added: "The positive news was driven by rises in combined output and new orders, fuelled by solid underlying demand.
"Also, easing price pressures added to the overall improvement in business conditions. That said, Scottish private sector growth remains below that of the UK as a whole."
Economy Secretary Keith Brown said: "The latest Bank of Scotland PMI figures show a welcome rebound in Scottish service sector business activity in May while manufacturing output remains strong and continues to improve.
"These figures show the Scottish economy remains resilient and we will continue to do all we can to support growth."


A tribute concert in memory of the late Cream singer and bassist Jack Bruce will raise money for children's hospices.

Artists playing include ex-Cream drummer Ginger Baker, Roxy Music's Phil Manzanera, Joss Stone and Nitin Sawhney, who will be musical director.
It will take place at London's Roundhouse on 24 October - the first anniversary of his death.
Proceeds will go to East Anglia's Children's Hospices (Each).
Mr Bruce, who lived near Sudbury in Suffolk and was 71 when he died, had regularly raised money for the charity's three hospices in Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.
Aruba Red, Mr Bruce's daughter, said: "We wanted a special night celebrating his life and knew the money raised should go to Each because it's what my dad would have wanted.
"When I was looking after my father with my sister and mum for the last days of his life, I realised how terribly hard it is supporting people towards the end, and it broke my heart to think of the families caring for little children with terminal illnesses."
Margrit Bruce, Jack's widow, said: "It's really great all these musicians are supporting us and we will be adding more to the bill."
Sawhney said: "Jack Bruce was one of my biggest heroes when I was growing up - a consummate musician, composer and all round rock genius with a killer voice and one of the most creative and versatile musical minds of his generation."
Other artists committed to appearing include Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson and Level 42's Mark King.


A river in Cumbria has been restored to its natural meandering course.

Swindale Beck, which flows into the River Eden near Haweswater, was straightened 200 years ago to clear land for grazing.
However, the lack of natural bends and faster flowing water meant gravel was washed away, making it less easy for Atlantic salmon and trout to spawn.
A kilometre-long channel mirroring its original course has been dug, with the water now directed into it.
The project, involving United Utilities, the RSPB, Natural England and the Environment Agency, will also alleviate flooding by slowing the flow of water through the valley.


The family of a Canadian man killed fighting the so-called Islamic State in Syria is urging the federal government to help repatriate his remains.

Kurdish forces, known as YPG confirmed that Nazzareno Tassone, 24, was killed alongside Briton Ryan Lock, 20, in December.
In a letter to Tassone's family, the YPG said their bodies had been taken by IS.
Tassone left Canada for Turkey last June to fight with the Kurdish forces.
His uncle, Frank Tassone, and his sister, Giustina Tassone described him respectively as someone who was "goofy" and a "giant goofball" as a child who grew up to take a keen interest in the military and international affairs.
Ms Tassone said her brother had a strong sense of right and wrong, which is what led him to volunteer with the Kurdish fighters.
"He believed every human deserved decency and common rights," she said.
Her brother, who lived in Edmonton, told the family he was travelling to Turkey to teach English.
Although his family had their suspicions over the past six months, he kept his involvement with Kurdish forces a secret.
While she wishes he had been open with what he had chosen to do, she knew he did not want his family to worry.
"We worried anyway," she said.
The family has started a Facebook page to urge the federal government to help bring Tassone's remains back to Canada, and have reached out to Global Affairs Canada and their local member of Parliament.
"I want my nephew home so we can bury him," his uncle said. "I don't understand why they would take his body."
In a letter to Tassone's family dated 23 December, the YPG say that he died along with Lock and three other fighters in an offensive against IS on 21 December in Jaeber village in the battle for the Syrian city of Raqqa, and that the bodies were taken by IS.
The YPG offered condolences to his family, saying that he "crossed continents for the destiny of our people and humanity".
Canadian officials say they have contacted the family and that consular officials are in touch with local authorities to gather more information about the circumstances.
A spokeswoman for the federal government said consular efforts are limited by the civil war in Syria but that there were ongoing attempts to assist the family.
Lock's family is also asking for help from the YPG and the UK government to help repatriate his remains.
Tassone is the second Canadian volunteer fighter to die in Syria.
In 2015, Ontario native John Gallagher, 32, was killed in Syria while volunteering with the YPG.


Two prominent US-based businessmen have been appointed to chair a new group that will advise the Northern Ireland Executive on trade and investment opportunities.

The first and deputy first ministers made the announcement on a US visit.
Shaun T Kelly will advise on east coast opportunities and John Hartnett will advise on the west coast and Silicon Valley.
Mr Kelly, from Belfast, is the New York-based chief operating officer of professional services firm KPMG.
Mr Hartnett is the founder of SVG Partners, a technology investment company.
The men will assist Invest NI in developing opportunities as part a renewed effort investment effort that involves lower corporation tax.
The tax rate in Northern Ireland is due to be cut to 12.5% in 2018.
Mr Kelly said Northern Ireland was working in a "very competitive environment" but does stand out to potential investors.
"[Companies] are also looking at eastern Europe, India, Asia," he said.
"Yes, Northern Ireland is definitely on the map, but it's competitive and that's where the lower corporation tax is going to really help.
"It makes [Northern Ireland] a much more attractive proposition."
First Minister Arlene Foster said it was important to have "two men who know Northern Ireland very well, situated here in the United States to advocate for us".
"We will come to the United States and talk to people of influence, but they are here all the time and we felt they could help us bring more jobs to Northern Ireland."
Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said the two men were "doing this because they are emotionally and intellectually engaged in trying to assist our process".


A 48-hour strike on First Great Western (FGW) trains has left tens of thousands of commuters facing severe disruption.

High-speed services between London, the West of England and Wales have been halved by the industrial action, which started at 18:30 BST on Wednesday.
FGW said more than 60% of services were "operating as normal" but the RMT said the figures were "pure fiction".
The dispute is over concerns guards and buffet cars will be disposed of on new Hitachi Inter City Express trains.
Click here for the latest on the first Great Western strike
The RMT said about 2,000 members of staff were on strike across the FGW network.
General secretary Mick Cash said: "FGW are running a skeleton service in some areas which is dangerously overcrowded and being operated by inadequately trained managers, raising serious safety issues which RMT will be taking up formally."
However, a spokesman for the train operator said it was "too early to say" how many employees had decided to strike but safety was its "top priority" and it would "not operate a service without the correct number of safety competent people on board".
FGW is operating a revised timetable and said it expects to add additional train services throughout the day.
But a spokesman said, it was unable to offer replacement bus services as there were "just not enough buses available to offer a viable service".
Services between London, the West and South Wales have been reduced by more than half and some suburban rail services have been cancelled.
The industrial action is likely to affect fans returning from the first Ashes Test match in Cardiff.
FGW said it will be operating limited services returning from Cardiff to Bristol Parkway and London Paddington, following the cricket but there will be no direct services to Bristol Temple Meads.
It has advised passengers to make alternative travel arrangements where possible.
The strike coincides with a separate, 24-hour stoppage on London Underground, which has closed the entire Tube network.
RMT general secretary, Mick Cash said: "The company still feel that the configuration of the new super express trains is out of their control and that it would be in their best interests to have 'driver-only' operations and to remove the buffet cars.
"That position is totally unacceptable and the union is clear that the design of the new fleet of trains is a matter for First Group and that there is still time to modify the rolling stock."
In an open letter to customers, FGW's Mark Hopwood said the new trains would have more staff, not fewer.
He said staff's existing pay and conditions would be protected and there would be "no compulsory redundancies for station and customer service staff".
The first Hitachi trains will run on the Great Western main line from 2017 and the East Coast main line from 2018.
The new trains are being introduced under the Intercity Express Programme (IEP) on routes between London Paddington and Oxford, Bristol and South Wales.


A blaze ripped through an area of grassland the size of three football pitches in London.

Around three hectares of scrubland were alight on Tottenham Marshes in Lee Valley Park on Tuesday evening.
More than 60 firefighters brought the flames under control in two hours using grass beaters and water backpacks.
London Fire Brigade said grass fires could travel quickly and change direction. It warned people against attempting to put them out.
Station manager Gary Thompson, who was at the scene, said: "Grass fires cause a great deal of damage to open spaces, property and wildlife but the public can help us stop them from starting by making sure that their cigarettes and barbecues are extinguished properly and that glass bottles, which can concentrate the sun's rays onto dry grass, are disposed of carefully."


Rupert Grint is to make his West End stage debut alongside Ben Whishaw in a West End revival of Jez Butterworth's Mojo.

Daniel Mays and Downton Abbey's Brendan Coyle will also star in the black comedy set in a seedy 1950s Soho night club.
The award-winning play opened at the Royal Court in 1995 and was made into a film released in 1998.
Mojo will begin previews at the Harold Pinter Theatre on 26 October.
The show will be directed by Ian Rickson - who directed the original production - and designed by Ultz, who worked with Rickson and Butterworth on Jerusalem.
Speaking to Baz Bamigboye in the Daily Mail, Rickson said he cast Grint after placing him in a read-through of the play.
'I'd seen the Potter films with my daughter and always thought Rupert was truthful as Ron Weasley. There's something ordinary and centred about him, and in this world of Mojo you want that grittiness,' he said.
Whishaw, who plays Q in the latest Bond films, was last seen on stage opposite Judi Dench in Peter and Alice at the Noel Coward theatre.


Japan gave the word tsunami - meaning harbour wave - to the world; the destructive sea surges have been recorded throughout the country's history.

Tsunamis are triggered by earthquakes, hundreds of which strike Japan each year.
An offshore quake in 1707 is said to have caused a tsunami that hit the island of Shikoku, leaving several thousand people dead.
Further back, in the 15th century, a giant wave is said to have swept away a hill-top hall housing the Daibutsu, a huge bronze Buddha, in Kamakura, a town south of Tokyo.
Japan is perched on top of several converging tectonic plates. Geological instabilities cause around 1,000 tremors each year.
Many of the small ones go undetected by the public, and residents are used to taking medium-sized quakes in their stride.
Some earthquakes, however, are etched in the national consciousness.
In 1923 a huge earthquake struck Tokyo. Known as the Great Kanto Earthquake, the 7.9 magnitude tremor and subsequent fires that blazed through wooden houses killed around 100,000 people.
Seventy-two years later, another powerful 7.3 magnitude quake hit the port city of Kobe in western Japan.
Highways were toppled and thousands of buildings damaged. Some 6,400 people were killed and more than 400,000 injured; fires blazed across the city.
It is widely thought that Tokyo is expecting another powerful quake - and that this quake is now overdue.
So Japan puts considerable effort into preparing its response systems, its infrastructure and its citizens for potential disasters.
The government has invested heavily in monitoring systems. Founded in 1952, the Tsunami Warning Service is operated by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA).
It monitors activity from six regional centres, assessing information sent by seismic stations both on and off-shore known collectively as the Earthquake and Tsunami Observation System.
Using this system, JMA aims to send out a tsunami warning within three minutes of an earthquake striking.
When a quake hits, data concerning the magnitude and location are immediately flashed up on television by national broadcaster NHK.
The message then adds whether a tsunami warning has been issued and if so, for which areas.
In most towns and cities, loudspeaker systems can broadcast emergency information to residents.
In some rural areas, residents also have radios distributed by the local government over which instructions to evacuate can be broadcast.
Children practise ducking under the desk in earthquake drills throughout their school years. All adults are told where their closest evacuation centre - a park or sports field, for example - is located.
Infrastructural checks are also in place. High-rise buildings in major cities are designed so that they sway rather than shake during earthquakes, making them safer.
In the wake of the Kobe earthquake, new regulations for quake-proofing buildings came into force, and some local governments offer citizens a structural health check on their homes.
Some coastal areas have tsunami shelters, while others have built floodgates to withstand inflows of water from tsunamis.
And if an earthquake above a certain magnitude strikes, the bullet train will stop and nuclear and other plants will automatically go into temporary shut down.
All in all, Japan is widely acknowledged to be one of the most earthquake-prepared nations.
But for all these safeguards, the risks posed are severe, as the latest massive earthquake has shown.


A man has appeared in court charged with murdering a father-of-five in Cardiff.

Stephen Pike, 58, is accused of stabbing Clint Simms, 39, to death in Ely, on 3 March.
Mr Pike, of Ely, appeared at Cardiff Magistrates' Court on Monday charged with  murder and possession of a bladed article in a public place.
He spoke only to confirm his name and was remanded in custody to appear at Cardiff Crown Court on Tuesday.


One of Wales' best-known landmarks could reopen to visitors this summer, a local community group has said.

Anglesey council used to run tours of South Stack lighthouse but surrendered its lease on the building in March.
A new not-for-profit organisation, Ynys Lawd Heritage Group, said it has struck a deal with owners Trinity House and hopes to welcome visitors again within a few weeks.
Trinity House said it was still in the last stages of the tender process.
The local authority gave notice on the lease in November 2016 as part of a plan to make almost Â£3m of budget savings.
It was estimated the move would save about Â£13,000 in running costs.
John Cave, one of eight members of the new heritage group, said they were waiting on final paperwork from Trinity House but aimed to start running tours "within four weeks".
"We feel the lighthouse is a gem, for Anglesey and for Wales," he said.
"We all thought it would be a great shame if it was to close to the public so we formed this group.
"We will keep on the six part-time guides who worked here and any profit we make will be reinvested into South Stack and into other local community projects."
The 91ft (28m) lighthouse was built just off Holy Island in 1809 and is visible for 28 miles out to sea.
It attracts up to up to 19,000 visitors a year between Easter and early October.
Access to the whitewashed buildings and its tower requires some effort - with 400 steps down onto the South Stack island outcrop itself.
"We are delighted," Mr Cave added. "It's great for tourism in north Wales, the island and especially for Holyhead, which really needs people to come and visit."


Craigavon-based pharmaceutical group Almac made a pre-tax profit of £12.6m in 2014, down from £19.2m in 2013.

The company said the fall in profit was mainly due to a one-off licensing fee of $9m (£5.93m) which it had received in 2013.
Turnover grew by 5% from £325m to £342m.
Almac employs more than 3,300 people in Northern Ireland and at facilities throughout the rest of the UK, the US and Asia.
It is aiming to add another 350 jobs over the next five years as it continues to expand.
In 2014, it paid salaries of £116m, with the highest paid director receiving £605,000.
The company provides services to other pharmaceutical firms, as well as developing its own products, mainly in cancer diagnostics.
It spent £3.6m on research during the year and benefited from almost £1.5m in research and development tax credits.
The firm is one of Northern Ireland's most successful exporters, and about 95% of its business comes from customers outside the UK.
Almac was formed in 2002, borne out of Galen Holdings, which was founded in 1968 by Sir Allen McClay.
Sir Allen died in 2010 and the firm is now owned by the McClay Foundation.
The pharmaceutical sector in Northern Ireland has been one of the strongest economic performers in recent years.
The most recent official figures show the sector growing at an annual rate of almost 10%.


A pregnant woman was rescued from her car by a farmer after becoming trapped amid widespread flood warnings across Lancashire.

The unidentified woman was helped to safety after running into waters in Ellel earlier, the fire service said.
Fourteen flood warnings have been issued, including in Croston, which was hit by a severe deluge last year.
Some rail services between Preston and Lancaster have also been cancelled after heavy flooding on the track.
Read breaking news updates on BBC Lancashire Live
Elsewhere, Burrow Beck in Lancaster has burst its bank, and there are two flood warnings for the River Condor at Galgate amid prolonged periods of heavy rain.
No properties have been affected, although water is being pumped from culverts in some areas.
Dave Wilkinson, who lives in Galgate, said: "If the river levels keep up like this it's obviously going to come over in the next 24 hours I would say.
"This is just one night's rain. We've been here for six years now and it's never gone up as quickly as this before."
The Environment Agency's flood warnings mean flooding is "expected", with "immediate action required".
Police are advising people to avoid travelling where possible, to turn off electricity in their homes and avoid walking through floodwater.
Drivers have also been urged to exercise caution.


A couple have become the 5,000th pair to get engaged on the London Eye.

Jagan Rao and Natasha Palmer from Marylebone, central London, decided to get married on the wheel on Saturday.
The couple have now been given a complimentary "Cupid's Capsule" on the date of their proposal every year.
Since the attraction opened in 2000, there have been 5,000 proposals that are known of, 512 weddings, 22 civil partnerships and about 1.5 million glasses of Champagne consumed.
Natasha, 30, said: "I am still a little bit shocked to be honest, I never expected to be proposed to on the London Eye, it was quite amazing as we had our own capsule, Champagne and then Jay popped the question.
"There was only ever going to be one answer."
Jagan, also 30, said: "I wanted somewhere memorable to pop the question and thought where better than while looking over the city we met in.
"I contacted the London Eye to book and was told ours would be the 5000th proposal and would I like to make it even more special with a free private capsule to ourselves, roses, Champagne and photographs of the day.
"It was great to see Natasha's face!"


A record 89% of self-assessment taxpayers who filed their return by Sunday's deadline did so online, as many turn their back on paper filing.

Some 9.24 million people completed their self-assessment tax forms via the HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) website.
A total of 1.14 million returns, the other 11% of submissions, were filed on paper before an earlier deadline.
Some 870,000 expected returns were not received by the deadline, with those individuals facing financial penalties.
These fines start at Â£100, even if there is no tax to pay, before rising to an additional Â£10 a day after three months, and rising further if returns are more than six and 12 months late.
The busiest period for self-assessment submissions was between 14:00 GMT and 15:00 GMT on Friday, when 50,358 people sent through their forms online.
"Each year, we are dedicated to making the self-assessment process easier and more intuitive," said Ruth Owen, director general for personal tax at HMRC.
The Friday surge came despite many people facing disruption when trying to access HSBC bank accounts online, with the bank being "attacked" by cyber criminals.


A judge in the Dominican Republic has issued arrest warrants for three Frenchmen accused of helping two French pilots flee drug convictions.

One of the three, Aymeric Chauprade, is an independent right-wing member of the European parliament.
The pilots were arrested in 2013 preparing to take off in a plane carrying 26 suitcases of cocaine.
They were sentenced to 20 years but during the appeal process fled to the French Antilles and then on to France.
Announcing the warrants for Mr Chauprade and fellow French nationals Christophe Naudin and Pierre Malinowski, Attorney General Francisco Dominguez Brito alleged the trio had helped organise the escape from the Dominican Republic of pilots Pascal Fauret and Bruno Odos.
The pilots were convicted in Santo Domingo in August in the so-called "Air Cocaine" drug-trafficking case.
They had been arrested in March 2013 at the resort of Punta Cana on a privately hired jet carrying 680kg (1,500lb) of cocaine.
After their conviction they were freed under the judicial review process and barred from leaving the country.
But they reportedly escaped by boat to the French Antilles and from there by plane to France.
French media earlier said the pilots had worked previously for the French navy and had been helped by former intelligence agents.
The French government said it had nothing to do with their escape.
The pilots say they are innocent and have vowed to clear their name.
They were arrested earlier this month in Lyon but legal experts say an extradition is unlikely.


A prominent family in Panama has been laundering drug money through his businesses,  according to the US authorities.

Businessman Nidal Waked and his father Abdul are accused of running an organisation that laundered money through a luxury mall, a bank and duty-free shops.
Nidal Waked was arrested in Colombia and officials say he will be extradited to the US to face charges.
He has denied the accusations.
Grupo Wisa said it had told its lawyers to co-operate fully with the investigation.
The arrest of Nidal Waked, a Spanish, Lebanese and Colombian national, at Bogota airport was announced by the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).
It said it had designated Mr Waked, 36, as a drug lord, describing him as "one of the world's most significant drug money launderers and criminal facilitators".
A statement by the US Treasury said the money-laundering operation run by Nidal Waked and family members "uses trade-based money laundering schemes, such as false commercial invoicing; bulk cash smuggling; and other money laundering methods, to launder drug proceeds on behalf of multiple international drug traffickers and their organizations".
The family runs Panama's oldest newspaper, the Estrella de Panama, and led a consortium that took control of the duty-free zone at Panama International Airport in 2007.
The Treasury's move saw 68 companies linked to the family having their assets frozen, and being prevented from dealing with US companies. Among those blacklisted is the Panama-based Balboa Bank, that Reuters reported has more than $44m (Â£30m) in capital and 172 employees.
The bank has not responded to the developments.
Six other people were named as his suspected associates. It is not clear if other arrests have yet taken place, but a separate investigation is under way in Panama.