Shane Curley (Fianna Fail)

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, for being back in the House again. We have discussed this previously in the Seanad. As we head into mock exam season, there is an urgent need for clarity and certainty for students with dyslexia and dyscalculia in the 2026 leaving certificate. A 2009 expert advisory group recommended immediate roll-out of extra time in exams in the leaving certificate for students with dyslexia and dyscalculia. More recently, Dr. Keith Murphy, from TU Dublin, and child psychologist Dr. Colman Noctor have echoed those requests, 17 years later. We have seen no major progress.

The impact is heartbreaking in a lot of cases. A few weeks ago, at a meeting of the Oireachtas joint committee on education, we had before us Sive O'Brien, who is a senior cycle student in the Bower, in Athlone. Sive outlined the fact that, despite being an incredibly intelligent student and having the ability to answer the questions in exams, she did not finish one of her junior certificate exams.Students study 12, 13 or 14 subjects to exam for the junior certificate. She did not finish one of them. Dyslexia Ireland has consistently called for a national roll-out of this. I raised this in the Oireachtas committee. I put it out on my social media channels and the feedback I got was absolutely overwhelming, from both the students themselves and their parents. I have been stopped on the street to be thanked for raising this on behalf of students to try to get the right thing done. This is the right thing to do for the 2026 leaving certificate across the board nationally. It is already the norm at third level. Basically, the State Examinations Commission, SEC, is about to engage in a review project of the pilot scheme that is going to be potentially done in the 2026 leaving certificate, if it continues as it says it has and goes ahead with what it is planning to do. However, the third level researchers who will review it are already implementing extra time when they give their students exams. It is ten minutes per hour or part of an hour of an exam. That is the norm at third level where we are going to ask them to review what is happening at second level and I do not think that makes sense.

From the State Examinations Commission itself, we had Ms Feeney in. In that joint Oireachtas committee, she claimed that significant progress, in her words, and significant change has happened. In 17 years since the first expert advisory group told it to immediately roll it out nationally, it has not. It may roll it out on a pilot project basis in 2026. It does not get the lasting damage this does to students. It does not get the fact that it is creating a self-image of failure and inferiority when we set students up to fail. They cannot process the information in time to get their answers out on paper and it is causing them severe anxiety and dismay when they fail their exams through no fault of their own because of the system that is set up to make them fail.

We do not need expensive pilot programmes or reviews. We need extra time right now for students in the 2026 leaving certificate. I know the Minister, Deputy McEntee, is not here today. She is the eighth senior Minister who has had this on their table. It is not her fault but I really need her to intervene right now and tell the SEC to do what it should have done years ago, which is to roll it out nationally in 2026 and give students extra time. One final thing: it will not cost a cent - not a single cent - to the State to give them extra time in exams and I think it is a no-brainer.