Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I find it hard to speak about anything else today. The Taoiseach's Cabinet co-ordination committee is not doing a very good job when it comes to education. It is very difficult. The few Members who are left in this House can attest that their phones are hopping because of the 6,000 students affected by this absolute cock-up. It is extraordinary. This would bring down any other Government at any other time. The parents of one young lady named Aeva May were on the phone to me. She is resitting her leaving certificate because she missed out on what she really wanted to do very narrowly. Can the Taoiseach imagine the heartache, the absolute torture, that she and other students have gone through and are going through? What about all the parents who have paid for accommodation, or the students who are sitting at home working on college courses and wondering if they will stay in those courses? They will not know until later on today, and perhaps not even then. The 6,000 students who have been affected could be in different courses next week or the week after. This has never happened before. It is extraordinary. These students have gone through absolute hell and this is the cherry on top.

I do not know what we are going to do, but whatever is announced this evening had better be an extraordinary response. We cannot penalise students who have already been offered places. Some students who are repeating their leaving certificates may in fact be going to college. Parents are paying for accommodation which they may never need or use because their children could go to other third level institutions. Some people who have been enrolled in courses with restricted numbers may find they are no longer in those courses based on their results. The ramifications this will have throughout the country are humongous.

The Taoiseach said earlier that the outside company noticed a coding problem. The Government found out about this last week. Then there was a second error. Unless she has changed her mind, the Minister for Education and Skills will not be before the House this evening, although I encourage the Taoiseach to arrange it, even if her appearance is late in the evening, so she will not be able to tell us, so will the Taoiseach tell us if the second error was connected to the first or an altogether separate error? How many errors were there? Were there just two? Was the second error a magnification of the first or completely separate? Are there students who are impacted by both errors or a single error? How in the name of God did this happen? How did the Department not see this problem? Was it because this aspect was outsourced to this company and there were no checks on it? Will the Taoiseach tell us more about the second company the Government is bringing in to audit and check this? I agree with doing that, because the Department is obviously not capable of doing it itself.

This impacts on every single family network in the country. Since the Minister will not come before the House today, will the Taoiseach answer these questions for the people watching?

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