Ryan O'Meara (Tipperary North, Fianna Fail)

After 14 years of education, it seems like the whole purpose is to get to the leaving certificate exam and to get as many points as possible out of it. That is the sense among a lot of students when they leave school. The instant the oral is over and the paper is written, they feel they are finished with Irish and stop practising it. The love of it and the whole point of why they are studying it have not been introduced.

I am concerned about the NCCA proposal to reduce the Irish oral exam to 35% from 40%. It should be going in the opposite direction to 50%. When students leave after studying Gaeilge for so many years, they should have a confidence in speaking Irish, similar to the way students who, after five or six years studying German, French or Spanish, would be confident to attempt a conversation in those languages. Enhancing the oral exam on that side would be a very positive thing.

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