Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Yes, the extra 800 places are indeed welcome and I hope this will go some way towards alleviating the anxiety people among the prior leaving certificate students are feeling today. It is a pity we have left it to such a late stage because these students have had months of anxiety. I was first contacted in June about this, and we must never let this happen again. I acknowledge what the third level institutions are doing to try to facilitate what needs to be done here. Should we be in a situation on Friday or Monday next in which those extra places have not alleviated the issue, could the Minister consider some of the other points that I and my colleague, Deputy Ó Laoghaire, have put forward? The Minister said there were some legal issues with some of the suggestions. I have written to the Minister separately to seek clarification of that legal advice, particularly with regard to seeing if we could have the prior leaving certificate students assessed on the points that were required in the year they did their leaving certificate.

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