Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that the Minister has a very difficult job. If I was a betting man he might be praying that he would get some other post in the present transactions on the programme for Government. So many of the children wanted the calculated grades assessment that I am glad they have got it but there are other pupils and students who felt they would do better if they sat the leaving certificate. I would have thought that as the numbers sitting it would then be reduced the Department would be able to cater for them to sit the exam. The Minister is saying that may happen some time later in the year but a year is then gone out of their lives and we have lost something there.

How does the Minister propose to cater for mature students who were hoping to sit the exams or students who want to increase their marks in a subject that they needed for a specific course they were hoping to take? In line with many other Deputies, I have serious concerns about the July provision for children with Down syndrome and the inclusion of other children in that category because the parents of these children are really suffering and going through a lot at present. I am hoping that project will be offered and available to those children and parents.

Every year parents' income for the previous year, or the year before that, is assessed for the SUSI grant. Surely this year's income will be assessed when students and parents apply now for the grant. I hope that is the way they will be assessed this year, not on last year's income or that of the year before because incomes are way down.

That is another problem caused by holding the exam later in the year. The students will be applying next year for college and the points will be raised. The 2021 class will be affected by more pupils presenting next year. We need to talk about starting back to school in September and to consider how children with underlying conditions such as asthma and respiratory problems and teachers will be facilitated. We have to engage with Bus Éireann for bringing children to school in the new year because if social distancing is still the order of the day there will have to be more buses and much more thought put into this. There is a lot of work to be done. I know the Minister has less than a minute to reply but if he does not answer everything I have said he may send on the reply please.

See this speech in context