Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In fairness, nobody was smiling at the fact that she had to go to the High Court, which I acknowledge the Deputy did not infer, but we were all happy to see her determination pay dividends. I hope that she gets what she wants before noon on Friday, which is a well deserved place to study to become a veterinarian in this country. The Deputy will be aware, as I am sure everybody else will be, that the SEC is an independent public body under the aegis of the Department of Education and Skills. It is because of that independence that the public has confidence in the process that is the examination of the leaving certificate and in the outcome and the results arising therefrom. Errors are made by human beings. I cannot confirm to the Deputy that the review will be done in a week or a month but I will come back to him on the matter but we do need to ensure that it is robust so that when errors do occur the process facilitates people being able to access the places they apply for in a given year. Some 57,000 people sat the leaving certificate last year and more than 3,000 examiners examined approximately 380,000 papers. That is a big task. The review has to be conducted and a better process put in place in order that there will be no mistakes that cannot be rectified in a timely manner in the future.

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