Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I want to try to stick to the issues raised by the Deputy. He raised the issue of whether I will publish the public health advice. To be clear, the public health advice meant that we could model what the leaving certificate would look like. Using the public health advice, therefore, we modelled the leaving certificate with one exam per day, papers taking one and half hours, staggered entry to exam halls on a day-to-day basis and exams going from 29 July into September. Using that advice and data, we modelled the leaving certificate and we brought that information to the partners around the table.

Obviously, it was brought to me as well. We decided, after getting advice from the State Examinations Commission, that it could not stand over the legality and validity of a leaving certificate that is not comparable to one of any other year. That is what informed us. The next step was to find out from public health advice whether, when we would announce the timetable the first week in June, there would be any change to the social distancing measures in July and August, and the answer was "No". We have that. That is the discussion we had.

Deputy Ó Ríordáin also asked who gave the advice. We, in the Department of Education and Skills, including me, as Minister, made the decision based on the information we had that it would not be safe, it would not be right and, ultimately, it would not be fair.

The Deputy also tried to make the comparison between sitting an examination in August and bringing schools back in September. This was a decision about bringing post-primary school students, which I wanted and insisted on, in for two weeks prior to the examinations. We were talking about having students in the class for two weeks from mid-July.

The Deputy talked about appeals and guidelines. I stated earlier that in a week's time we will have that proper information to answer a range of possibly 200 questions that were raised today at our advisory meeting.

Deputy Ó Ríordáin is doing a disservice to disadvantaged schools. We have exceptional students in disadvantaged schools-----

See this speech in context