Mr. Seán Ó Foghlú:

On the Deputy's first question, the Department of further and higher education, research, innovation and science does not legally exist yet but it is being established. The Department of Education and Skills will not have responsibility for further education colleges. I am here on behalf of the Department of Education and Skills to talk about the reopening of schools. The further education colleges are treated like schools for administrative purposes but they do not now fall under the remit of the Department of Education and Skills.

I do not have the authority. A new Secretary General and Minister have been appointed to that Department who can talk about the matter.

In terms of the digital divide, we are aiming for the return of schools. We do not wish for blended learning. In terms of the end of the month, we will support as fully as possible the return of schools and are planning for possible contingencies if that may not be possible. It is not the main part of our plan and while we will have elements of support, the main part of our plan is to facilitate the return of schools as fully as possible.

In terms of substitutions, we are working through those issues and recognise it is not possible to leave the first cover of uncertified leave unsubstitutable because it creates an impossible situation in a school context. We are working through that and we have a number of suggestions for ways to do so. There are a number of sorts of leave that are not substitutable and we are working through those issues in our dialogue. Jobsharing cover is one of the other options that I had not mentioned but has been given as one of the solutions. In principle, we want to provide jobsharing cover but there is a challenge in terms of enabling us to do so.

The reopening of schools is a different issue from grades. The Deputy mentioned that the issue was flagged immediately. It is an issue that we were immediately confident about. It has been mentioned that the leaving certificate was being cancelled. To be clear, the leaving certificate has not been cancelled but postponed, which is a big and important legal distinction. We were unable to proceed with the written leaving certificate examinations in the summer but will provide them as soon as possible and the previous Minister for Education and Skills talked about November at the earliest. We are conscious of the matter and tried to maximise the possibility for out-of-school learners where there are two groups comprised of students who are in schools but taking subjects out of school and students who are out of school but not attending school. We have sought to maximise the possibility to provide a calculated grade for those but there is no alternative assessment available as part of the leaving certificate. The leaving certificate is postponed but will be available in written form as early as possible and it is not possible to put in place an alternative.