Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will start with the issue of next year's leaving certificate students. It is clear that everyone's preference would have been to have sat the leaving certificate this year but it was not possible. That was the decision that was made. One thing the Government is saying about the pandemic is that we will keep the schools open. It is critical for the mental health and development of our children that we will do whatever it takes to do this. In these circumstances, the message to the upcoming leaving certificate students is that there will be leaving certificate exams next May and June. They will have a difficult time because they have lost out on class time and they have had a different experience. The syllabus and the exams will reflect this. They absolutely have to expect that they will sit the leaving certificate.

We will not know the numbers until the model is run with this revised code and it is checked to ensure there are no other errors in it. It is impossible to know precisely when that will be. As I said earlier, last year some 3,000 students got an upgrade. This issue only applies to upgrades. There is no downgrading in this. Last year's upgrades led to 600 students being successful in getting a different application. If we play that statistic, that is why one gets to 1,000 places. I believe it will be fewer. That had a qualification in that there were people who wanted an upgrade. In this instance, it is random.

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