Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to raise this issue which, as I am sure the Minister will appreciate, is very much on the minds of the pupils affected by this incident, albeit that it involved only 200 pupils who were largely constituents of my own. Many of the parents have been in copntact with me.

I appreciate that the Minister has called for a report into what happened, and that is as it should be. It is important to establish how this happened to prevent it happening again but my concern is not to apportion blame but to ensure that the 200 pupils, who are primarily boys although some girls were affected, do not suffer as a result of a below par performance which inevitably is what they would have given following such an event happening to them.

I regret I have not so far heard the Minister indicate that she understands and acknowledges the impact on performance this incident has had on pupils who were already exhausted, as they approach the end of the leaving certificate. Many of the pupils involved had a physics examination in the morning and the accountancy examination in the afternoon, and were already over-tired at that stage. They were in the middle of doing what must be the most trying and stressful of examinations. After all these years I still have nightmares that I am doing the leaving certificate Irish poetry examination. I am sure there are very few people who do not have nightmares about the leaving certificate.

As a former teacher I am aware there are two immutable rules that every teacher drums into students facing into the leaving certificate examination. First, before they go in they should have a time management plan and stick to it and, second, before they start writing they should read the entire paper. These students could do neither. Even if they were fully compensated in terms of the time lost, and they were not, they had already lost out on those two important rules that must be in every child's head going into an examination.

Many parents have contacted me to relay their distress and that of the family at what has happened, and I am not sure the Minister fully appreciates how upsetting this incident has been for them. The leaving certificate is the most demanding examination any of us will ever have to do. The entire family is stressed and in a high state of tension during this very difficult time. All of the students affected are bright, higher level students who are hard-working and ambitious and, significantly, they are highly conscious of the importance of the points they need to get from this particular examination. What has happened to them is unforgivable and the only thing the Minister can do now is to assure them that the wrong that has been done to them will be righted in the marking process.

The Minister must direct that the marking scheme will be used to redress the damage done to the prospects of those 200 pupils. It is vital the Minister ensures they will not be penalised as a result of this blunder.

It was a monumental blunder for these students because the leaving certificate is a life-changing examination with no second chances. If this were a nationwide problem, it would have been all over the newspapers and the Minister would have moved to set minds at rest. However, because only a few hundred pupils have been affected, it has been downgraded.

The whole point of having a standardised examination is that everyone is treated the same in so far as that is possible. These pupils were not treated the same. Even from school to school, this problem was dealt with differently. One school was given a mere five minutes to compensate for the disruption, the consequences of which are incalculable. The Minister must give peace of mind to the pupils affected and their parents so they will not have to suffer as a result of a problem not of their making.

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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While I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to raise this important matter on the Adjournment, I am disappointed we cannot address it more substantively in the House before the summer recess.

The conduct of this year's leaving certificate and junior certificate examinations raises serious questions. There needs to be an investigation into the operation of the State Examinations Commission, SEC. Many have asked through various media if it is properly resourced and organised. The Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills has a responsibility to fully address these questions in the House.

There were major errors in this year's examination papers including incorrect figures in the business studies junior certificate paper, causing confusion and distress to students, and missing pages in the leaving certificate accountancy paper, causing confusion and a 45-minute delay to the examination in some Dublin schools. How was this allowed to happen? We need the answers to these questions not just through an Adjournment debate, but through a full question-and-answer session with the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills.

As I stated earlier today on the Order of Business, the SEC and the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills also need to account for the fact they allowed the printing of this year's State examination papers to be awarded to two firms outside of this jurisdiction in the neighbouring island in Britain after they were put out to EU-wide tender under EU rules. Did this lead to the errors in the papers?

Irish printers say the tenders could have been broken up to ensure the business remained in Ireland. In this economic climate, the decision to put the tenders out to Britain has cost jobs. Last week, another Irish printer, Futureprint in Baldoyle, County Dublin, closed down with the loss of 112 jobs.

We need the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills to be accountable for these matters. We need assurances from her on the accuracy of the papers. A line must be drawn in the sand. The Minister must also give a response to the House on future printing contracts. These were avoidable mistakes which should not be allowed to repeat themselves in next year's examinations.

John Moloney (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I am replying to this Adjournment matter on behalf of the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills. I thank the Deputies for raising this matter and apologise to the students affected by this incident. We fully appreciate this is a highly stressful time for students taking State examinations. Everything possible should be done to ensure the smooth running of the exams for candidates.

The matter is being taken extremely seriously by the Department of Education and Skills and the State Examination Commission, SEC. The Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills has spoken to the SEC's chairperson who advised her it is reviewing the issues which arose with examination preparation and production this year. The chairperson has assured the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills that he and the other members of the commission will be considering these issues as soon as possible with a view to making any changes needed to avoid a recurrence. The chairperson will be reporting to the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills on the outcome of this work.

Due to the review being in progress, it would not be appropriate to comment on the matter in detail until the report of the review has been completed and presented to the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills. It is expected that a report relating to the production and collation of the examination papers, and what future steps can be taken to reduce the risk of recurrence, will be available by the end of July.

The three-hour leaving certificate accounting examination took place on Monday afternoon, 21 June. Accounting was offered as a subject in 514 schools for 5,171 candidates at higher level nationwide. A production error in the examination papers affected 207 of these candidates across 16 schools in south Dublin, 4% of the higher level candidates.

Upon learning of the error, arrangements were immediately made by the SEC to provide the students affected with the correct version of the paper by fax and e-mail. The SEC gave an instruction that students should start the exam using the original paper provided and be given the correct version as soon as it became available in the school. The SEC also advised the school authorities that additional time should be given to students to make up for any time lost that may have arisen as a result of a delayed start to the examination, or otherwise, as a result of dealing with this error.

The length of time each of the 16 schools took to deal with the error would obviously vary depending on several factors such as the time taken to contact the SEC for instructions, the time involved in collecting the incorrect paper and distributing the correct paper and the number of candidates in the centre.

While arrangements were being made in the affected schools to provide copies of the correct papers, the SEC gave the instruction that candidates should be advised to commence working on the paper which had been provided to them as it contained the entire section 1 of the examination.

The SEC has also apologised to schools and candidates for the error. It has operational responsibility for the operation of the certificate examinations. Running the examinations is an immense logistical operation. The 2010 examinations involve over 116,000 candidates in over 4,700 main examination centres and 8,000 special centres. Over 250 different test instruments, 90 curricular and 15 non-curricular subjects, over 6000 examiners, 3 million individual exam papers comprising over 34 million pages, and just under 2 million test items are involved in this process. Of the 3.1 million examination papers produced by the SEC, approximately 85% are printed by external printing companies while the SEC has the capacity to print the remaining 15% of the requirements internally.

In the case of the leaving certificate accounting higher level paper where a production error affected 207 candidates in 16 schools, the SEC can confirm that those papers were printed internally.

This gives a background to the scale of the operation which is undertaken by the SEC each year in providing the State examinations across 13 days each June. While not negating the impact on the students who were affected by this incident, it is important to keep in mind the majority of State examinations take place without any difficulties.

One of the key objectives of the SEC is the provision of an examinations system of the highest possible quality. The aspiration of any examining body, including the SEC, is to preside over a system that is completely error free. Although the SEC has in place a range of procedures to enhance reliability and to minimise error, it is an unfortunate fact that errors can occur on examination papers. Such errors are most regrettable. When the error in the leaving certificate accounting paper higher level was brought to the attention of the SEC on Monday last, it immediately took steps to address the issue. In a large-scale, point-in-time examination such as exists in this country it is inevitable that unforeseen circumstances will arise in the course of the examinations. Although the SEC has in place a range of procedures to enhance reliability and minimise error, it is an unfortunate fact that errors can occur on examination papers. The issue for the SEC is how to deal with these errors as they occur.

In light of the huge volume of papers, some 3.1 million examination papers made up of 34 million A4 pages, produced each year the SEC has a formal process for scrutinising examination papers after they have been printed. The issue with the leaving certificate accounting higher level was a production error which was not identified by the SEC as part of its quality assurance processes. Once alerted to the error, the SEC took all reasonable steps to ensure the examination could proceed for the candidates concerned.

I confirm to the Deputies that a review of the issues that have arisen this year with regard to examination paper preparation and production is being carried out by the SEC and this will be the subject of early consideration by the chairperson and members of the commission. The review will also address any concerns in respect of the SEC processes that may have given rise to these issues and will inform any actions deemed necessary to prevent the recurrence of such difficulties in the future. The Tánaiste has asked the commission to keep her informed of its actions and its ongoing reporting to her on the conduct of the examinations will make specific reference to these particular issues.

As previously stated, this incident will be reviewed thoroughly by the commission and the Department looks forward to receiving a report on the matter and details of any changes in procedure to help ensure this will not reoccur in future. I thank the Deputies again for raising this matter and I apologise once again to the students concerned.