Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I endorse the Senator's remarks about ISSU, the Irish Second-Level Students Union. It continues to be a positive contributor to the advisory group. I acknowledge the role of students, as well as all the partners in education, who sat around the table and gave many long hours and days. They gave so much of their own time, whether they were representatives of parents, teachers, students, managerial bodies or SNAs.

There will certainly be an accommodation for out-of-school learners. A process is being developed with regards to giving access to them to the absolutely maximum extent possible. That was an issue last year but we are most determined that measures will be put in place to accommodate them.

Unfortunately, due to the fact that exams would have to be run in parallel, from a public health point of view, it would not have been possible to run both junior certificate and leaving certificate exams at the one time. What will prevail this year will be exactly the same as last year. Students will receive a certification of completion from the Department. There will also be assessments run in the schools prior to that.

We will also be fixing our attention on how adult learners and early school-leavers could be accommodated later in the school year, should they wish to avail of an examination. That would be for later in the year, however.

I am conscious of the points raised by the Senator on DEIS. The Department is intent on putting particular emphasis on DEIS, notwithstanding the announcement we made yesterday on the pupil-teacher ratio, school completion programmes and staffing in DEIS schools. On the point of time lost, it is also my intention that we would, like last year, have an enhanced summer programme for numeracy and literacy. I am looking very much to doing that this summer. It is an area in which we will continue to work and focus on in the Department. We will look at all measures, including the Senator's point about home school liaison officers, that might need to be incorporated going forward.