Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I also commend the Acting Leader on her first day taking the Order of Business. I also acknowledge that this is St. Brigid's Day. It is a special day and I am glad that it is now going to be recognised as an official bank holiday.

While I am speaking about women, I also wish to talk about a strong courageous lady who appeared on the "Claire Byrne Live" show last night. I do not know if any of the Senators saw the programme, but anyone involved in policymaking or in the legal system should be duty-bound to watch it to see Aimee Foley outlining the horrendous experience she had with her father, who is now in prison. I have known Aimee since she was a child. Like everybody else, I was totally unaware of what she was going through and the horrendous experience she was suffering regularly. She waived her right to anonymity and spoke openly about the value of victim impact statements, what they do for victims and the power they give to victims.

She also spoke, however, about sentencing and how horrendously disappointed and outraged she was with the sentence in this case. It is now subject to an appeal by the Director of Public Prosecutions. As policymakers, however, we must reflect on what we must do to ensure that these types of situations do not happen in future. It is phenomenal what Aimee has done for the thousands of victims of domestic and sexual violence by waving her anonymity. I salute her for her courage and bravery. We are all extremely proud of what she has done.

I also wish to mention the leaving certificate. Some 60,000 or 70,000 young people are going to be doing those examinations this year.We are now told it will be an exam-based leaving certificate. I do not agree with that and I think it is wrong. It should be a hybrid system.

The young people who are doing their leaving certificate this year are probably the most impacted as a result of the pandemic. Some 25% of them did not get a junior certificate to start with. They have been out of school for a large chunk of fifth year and a significant chunk of this year. There are medically vulnerable young people who have still not gone back to school and have missed even more time. Whatever way it is dressed up or down, an exam is an exam. No matter how many choices there are in an exam, it has to be done within a two or three-hour period. I appeal to the Minister, Deputy Foley, to re-examine this. The right thing to do is to give young people doing their leaving certificate this year the same option students had last year and the year before. It would be fair and equitable.