Dr. Joseph Ryan:

I sincerely apologise to the Chairman and members of the committee. I was caught by gremlins and I missed some of the questions. I will listen back and if there is any follow-up, I will contact members directly.

At the recent launch of Education Matters, the Taoiseach spoke about leaving certificate reform and express the view that the leaving certificate was too inflexible and used a very limited range of assessment. One of the things the pandemic has taught us educators is that the assessment concentration of the leaving certificate did not sustain in a time of crisis. This crisis gives us a chance to reflect on this as an instrument and as a measure of what people have achieved, and also as a measure of potential for going on to further education. We would be very happy to work with the committee on that and we would be delighted to get an invitation to come back to discuss it with the committee.