Mr. Dalton Tattan:

I suppose we would have started earlier. That is something we were just not able to do when the pandemic came. When the first lockdown hit us, and the school closures happened with no notice, we were all caught in a sort of whirlwind. The leaving certificate was caught up in that too. It took quite some time to figure out if we could really run a set of exams. We really did try to run exams for some of the reasons the members have spoken about, such as the need for fairness and the concerns about what calculated grades might mean. Ultimately, we came to the view that they simply could not be run.

If we had had more time, it would have given us a greater chance to plan and avoid some of the issues and we would have had earlier results as well. Students started in higher education a few weeks later than they would ordinarily have. That said, if we had run the exams they would not have started even at this stage of the year. They would not have started until December or January.