Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I know from experience that the day of leaving certificate results can bring great joy for some and great disappointment for others. The day the course points are published can also bring great joy and disappointment as well. I have already outlined that this past year and the previous year have been extraordinary and that extraordinary circumstances prevailed. The class of 2021 had an achievement in managing to sit a leaving certificate process involving accredited grades and a written exam. It was an extraordinary and unprecedented measure, almost unique in the world. It was important that they would have it.

I am very proud that schools and staff facilitated it and that students engaged with it. Notwithstanding that, next year will be different. I am mindful, as I said previously, that the class of 2022, as it will be, also endured a lack of in-person teaching and learning. Accommodations are being made for the class of 2022 in the context of examination papers, etc., in order that they will have a similar accommodation . We hope that that will be the limit of the experience of school closures and of this issue going forward.

I do not have control over the CAO points system. We are working towards a return to our schools with accommodations made for previous absence but with a return, as normal as is possible, going forward for students.