Dr. Anne Looney:

On next year's leaving certificate, there have already been adjustments to the examination around shortening papers, etc. I make a plea on behalf of the class of 2022 that there be no speculation. The last thing they want is people discussing whether there will be a leaving certificate. That would add greatly to stress levels. We know we can do it if required. We need to hold firm and stick with the plan we have. That is my view having observed some of the difficulties that were caused when people began to speculate about it.

Industry is represented on the NCCA, as Professor Hyland said, by representatives from a number of companies. It is interesting to see the discourse around what companies, industry and employers need now coalesce so much with what we talk about in education, namely, resilience, inclusiveness and creativity being as important as the ability to handle advanced calculus and algebra. There is very much a shared agenda in that regard and that is useful. There is also strong industrial support in Ireland for keeping a wide range of subjects for leaving certificate and keeping that breadth. That is seen as one of our advantages. We are one of the few systems where every student studies mathematics until the end of schooling. That is really important.

I was thinking about Senator O'Reilly's point about the lottery. I am intrigued by the idea of a qualifying point and that there would be a threshold of points, which would be the qualifications Professor O'Leary indicated we know are needed to succeed, for example, verbal skills, mathematics, etc., and that there could be a blended system where someone might reach a threshold and then enter a lottery for places. It would be worth the committee pushing the boat out in its deliberations and seeing what comes back in the wave of disdain. The first thing it will encounter is the fact that Irish people will not trust a lottery because someone is fiddling it somewhere.