Kieran O'Donnell (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach for the opportunity to raise this important matter and I thank the Minister for taking the time to come here to deal with it.

This issue, which is already in the public domain, arises out of the judgment in the case of Rebecca Carter. Ms Carter took proceedings in the High Court to ensure that she did not lose out on a place in veterinary college owing to a totting-up error on a leaving certification examination paper. While she was successful, she missed a number of weeks of the course. As a parent of children who have sat the leaving certificate examination and of others who have yet to sit it, I understand the pressures involved. For students who sat the leaving certification examination this year, the results were issued on 15 August 2018 - five days prior to the first round of offers of third-level places on 20 August. The second round of offers took place on 29 August. Mr. Justice Richard Humphreys, who, I understand, will soon hand down a written judgment in the case of Ms Carter, has asked that this process be reviewed and amended before the examinations next year.

The Minister has previously stated that the State Examinations Commission and the third-level institutions will meet to discuss the matter this week. Will he confirm if that meeting is going ahead? Would it be of benefit for the chief executive officers of the institutions to also engage in discussions in the issue with the Minister and his Department? In terms of this year's leaving certificate examination, there were approximately 284,000 scripts for correction and 1,652 examiners. The process took 54 days to complete. In terms of the appeals mechanism, in respect of which there were 400 examiners, the process of rechecking 9,000 scripts and 5,900 oral examinations - approximately 15,000 rechecks in total - took 40 days. Between 15 August when the results were issued and 5 September, which was the deadline for receipt of applications for rechecks, there were 15 working days or almost three weeks, which is a long time. There are then 25 working days, or almost five weeks, between the date for recheck of the scripts and the issuance of the results. When will the results of these rechecks be announced? Overall, this process will take approximately 40 working days.

What is the position regard, totting-up errors similar to those which occurred in Rebecca Carter's case? This is about real lives. Of the 55,400 students who sat the leaving certificate examination this year, 5,200 appealed their results and 1,400, or 15%, received upgrades, 400 of whom were offered places on other courses.There is a time gap there. It appears to take a very lengthy period of time under the appeal mechanism to get scripts back, which takes 15 working days, nearly three weeks, and then a further 25 days for them to be checked, which amounts to 40 days in total. That compares to 54 days for nearly 384,000 scripts as against 9,000 scripts on the appeal.