Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I look forward to working with the Deputy as well. I am very conscious that this pandemic disadvantaged every peer group. The Deputy could quite rightly point to the students of 2020, who have gone through a very stressful year, as have the 2019 students. I will not use the Deputy's time but I took legal advice on the matter. It was not possible, according to that advice, to ring-fence places for the 2019 students. Therefore, the best legal and operational route available to me was to massively expand, at an unprecedented level, the number of available college places. That resulted in many more people getting into college. I accept that the Deputy could point to examples from the 2019 or 2020 class, as well as previous years, where people did not get a place.

The then-Government was not the first party clamouring for the leaving certificate to be cancelled and there was almost a cross-party consensus that the leaving certificate examination could not take place. We had to respond to that on the grounds of public safety and we put in place the very best possible system.

We cannot have it every way. I am confident we have the most robust system possible but I am very conscious of the individual impact it has had on people.