Mr. Aidan Farrell:

Dr. Desmond referred to the our way of dealing with complaints or emergencies that arise during examinations. My experience has been that if there is any sense of unease among students regarding the difficulty of a paper or particular question or if a question does not work out or there is an error in the paper, our lines will light up and we will receive between 2,000 and 3,000 complaints and calls within a matter of hours. That is our experience and it shows that people are alert to the examinations and do not hesitate to contact us if a particular issue arises with one of them.

The Senator asked a question about the composition of the board of the State Examinations Commission. This was decided by the Government of the day when it established the commission in 2003. In setting up a separate body to run the State examinations body, the then Government examined the structure of other boards in education and broader civic society. Unlike, for example, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, NCCA, which is a representative and advisory council that includes representatives from third level interests, school management, school teachers, educationalists, industry and so forth, the State Examinations Commission is a delivery body. Our responsibility is to operate and deliver the State examinations system. The NCCA sets the policy, if one likes, the Minister then determines what will be the policy and our role is to deliver and operate that.

I understand that at the time of the commission's establishment, the Government of the day was strongly of the view that the role of the board was to provide oversight on behalf of the population regarding the conduct of State examinations. It was not intended to be a body representing particular sectoral interests, especially in the area of examinations. The board needed to be separate from that in terms of providing assurance and reassurance to the population on the conduct of what is regarded as a very important national educational service. For this reason, representative groups do not nominate members of the board. The Minister makes nominations to Cabinet which then determines who will be the five members of the board.