Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I have moved my motion. I will not be supporting the amendment because it seeks to remove the action which I believe is needed to protect the children and to signal to the Minister that he needs to ensure they do not lose the 10%. I am aware that the talks are ongoing but I believe the Minister needs to put a contingency plan in place.

On the point regarding the undermining the integrity of the examination, I do not believe that is the case. There are already alternative models in operation which could help resolve this problem and provide a guarantee to students that they will not be adversely affected. For example, students who do not participate in the oral component of examinations at junior cycle have their written examinations marked out of 100%. This means that students who do not take the oral component of a language examination do not automatically lose marks. This model, or an alternative, may not be ideal but we have to accept the urgent need to have a contingency plan in place. It must be acknowledged that putting in place such planning requires a great deal of preparation and as such the process needs to start now.