Dr. Niall Muldoon:

Absolutely. As stated earlier, the State Examinations Commission came into our remit in the middle of 2013 so we have been working on that. That has been a high profile issue for us on which we have been working directly with the commission. We believe improvements need to be made within the commission in the way it deals with complaints. Our sense is that in terms of the appeals that take place, as the Senator said, there is not clear communication with the parents on how it should happen and what needs to occur. When they are done under the pressure of being three days away from the first examination, everybody is at a disadvantage, especially the child. From our point of view that is a clear indication of where the best interests of the child could be easily worked on earlier than that, and there needs to be some way to make sure that happens. We have dealt with approximately 60 complaints in a period of time. From January onwards we anticipate these sort of issues will arise in that scenario and it is very unfair because those young people are geared up for the most important element of their lives at that stage and it makes a huge difference if they do not have the support they felt they were sure of or that they had in the junior certificate. We can certainly work with the commission to improve that scenario as much as possible.