Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As I said, the Government has approved 5,000 extra places this year to try to ease the pressures. The calculated grades model is robust and as fair as it can possibly be. The decision to take out the socio-economic profiling of schools was correct and was broadly welcomed in the House.

The Government does not have within its capacity the power to create places for every single person who wants a place in third level, unfortunately. Third level institutions do not have the capacity. Ministers have worked with third level institutions to secure additional places. The Deputy will understand that for practical courses involving laboratories and so on it can be difficult to expand numbers. Significant work has been put into providing resources to get increased numbers at third level this year. We will monitor the situation.

The Minister is continuing to work with colleges this week to see if he can get additional places. We will see where this lands on Friday and what the nature of the challenge will be for those students to whom the Deputy referred. It was not possible to have separate calculated grades for the 2019 cohort who are applying this year. This is a once-off and unique situation. All the work involved has been about trying to make the system as comparable as possible with previous and future leaving certificates.

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