Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Why would Mr. Burke not consider that allocating those 25 points to a language of choice, be it German, Spanish, French, Russian or whatever, or to an arts subject on the leaving certificate programme, would be equally beneficial? He could argue for a balance, that we could keep incentivising those taking higher level mathematics, but we could also do the same for other choices. The allocation for mathematics capitulated to third level, which was the real purveyor of this. However, it has come back to bite them because the situation is a bit up in the air now, between higher and lower levels, grades and lower level courses being harder than higher level courses. It is about creativity and not necessarily about mathematics. From an educational point of view, the Department should propose some kind of balance. If 25 extra points are being allocated to mathematics, the same should be done for a language or arts subject.