Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)
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The witnesses are all very welcome, especially Sive. It is not easy coming in to a committee even for us on this side of the table. It is great she is here. I thank her for sharing her experiences. My child is in senior cycle. I have her permission; I texted her earlier to ask if I could speak about this. She has dyslexia. It is not just the struggle with reading and writing and all those things, it is the struggle with a system that has been quite difficult for us as a family. As her mother, I have had to advocate all the way along. I met Sive last week and I said this to her. When she gets exam results at the end of each year, there seems to be a dropdown box where it says you should focus on your spelling and grammar. She has a waiver for spelling and grammar. It does not matter if you put that dropdown box in, she is never going to change that, why not focus on something else. Those small things chip away at confidence. As the previous speaker said, it chips away to the point where you think you are not good enough but you are. The system is not good enough. The lack of extra time is unfair and unreasonable. It is supposed to be reasonable accommodation. It is unreasonable accommodation to not have the time. When you read some of the things said in the past in that document from the State Examinations Commission, it is infuriating to think there are adults not willing to give young people an equitable chance and thinking that by giving them extra time, that disadvantage somebody else. They are not because they are at a disadvantage. I am very cross about this and I was cross when I met Sive last week as well because it is personal not only to me but to many young people I supported in the school completion programme over that time who were at risk of early school leaving because they did not fit into the system and were not able to learn the way that is apparently the only way we can learn in this country. It is difficult to hear that it happens in other countries. Why can we not just do what other countries do and learn from that good practice. I am just ranting now but I do have a question. What would Sive say to other young people who may watch this to encourage them to keep going - or to their parents?

Ms O'Brien may have prepared stuff she wanted to say here today but did not have time because we did not ask those particular questions. What would she say to other young people? If there is anything else she wants to say, she has a bit of time.