Mr. Pat Burke:

I suspect the difficulty the State Examinations Commission has with any new area of testing is the immutable time constraints on the current leaving certificate. Obviously, any organisation, if it is well resourced, can probably undertake almost anything, but there is a huge pressure point in regard to the time deadlines. This also arises in regard to some other issues. Senator Craughwell mentioned the issue of bereavement. Some issues in this regard are heartbreaking and I have seen that at first hand. Awful things happen, often just at the time of an exam. This has been a constant in the system over the years. We do not have the capacity to run a repeat exam. That leaves us with the question of whether there is some other way to provide a grade for kids in those circumstances.