Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)

I welcome the fact that the Minister has said she will re-examine the area. I do not know why or when the system was introduced. The Minister gave plenty of statistics regarding numbers taking examinations and so on.

We are talking about fairness and integrity, but this system is unfair. That seems also to be the view of the Equality Tribunal, which examined the issue. Two students won a court case in this regard. The asterisks or annotations label the student, undermining the entire concept of mainstreaming students. The Central Applications Office, CAO, accepts the grades without taking account of marking adjustments. For whom is the information intended? We are told that it was introduced to support the integrity of the examinations process.

The Minister mentioned marks for Irish, which allow some students an extra 5% in leaving certificate examinations, but there is no indication on their certificates that any adjustments have been made. Why is it so regarding these students? We are labelling them and signalling something to employers. If the CAO is not interested, I do not know who is. The asterisks suggest that the leaving certificate is not worth as much. How could any Minister defend that process? That the Department of Education and Science has taken a court case in this regard is a scandal and a waste of public money.

We are seriously talking about mainstreaming children with impairments, yet this sends them the wrong message. That more such children are sitting the leaving certificate is irrelevant. Similar annotations are not allowed in other jurisdictions, including the North and Britain. I ask that the Minister act on this issue. It will cost neither her nor her Department anything, but it will certainly make a substantial difference to the families of the children affected.

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