Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I understand what the Deputy is saying but the State Examinations Commission has looked at how it can be flexible by giving rest breaks throughout the period of the exams and going to different venues and so on but it has confined it to the day the exam takes place. It is caught because of the CAO timeframe which is very definite. What is different from a higher education situation is that the CAO allocates places and they must be taken up. In higher education, one is going from first year to second year, for example, so the place is there and it is not a question of someone else waiting to take it if one does not take it. It is much more difficult for them. The senior cycle review has commenced and one of the issues that has been very clearly flagged by the NCCA is the excessive concentration on a pathway into higher education, ignoring other pathways which the leaving certificate system should be accommodating.

As things stand with the CAO and its timetable, it does not feel it would be feasible to facilitate repeats while meeting the same high standards. It would have to gear the system up for a second exam just at the time it is trying to deliver the first CAO results. The people who had repeated would have a problem in meeting the CAO requirements which would already have been allocated. There are genuine problems and reform of the senior cycle may trigger changes.

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