Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The important point about the "independent assessment" is that it is also anonymous and I would share the concern that, given the very few degrees of separation in this country, teachers will come under huge personal pressure following the issuing of results. Will there be some form of appeal or recheck mechanism in place for students who feel aggrieved? That could potentially defuse a lot of the difficulties and could take a lot of pressure off teachers subsequent to issuing results. There is a rechecking mechanism in place for the leaving certificate although there are problems with it, particularly in the context of timing.

The primary certificate was discontinued long before my time and now what we will have, potentially, is a system where the first standardised marking of a student's work will take place after 14 years of formal education. I have spoken to many people in the education system who believe that we should go back to having a standardised assessment after the first eight years of formal education, rather than after 11 or 14 years. Can we put some checks and balances in place because after 14 years, it is too late. If there is a glaring lack of performance by a student or number of students in a particular school, after 14 years it is too late for many of them to try to tackle that problem. How does the Minister envisage addressing that issue?