Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 535: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the number of candidates for the leaving certificate examinations for each of the past ten years; the number of persons who attempted the examination in Irish and the type of examination attempted for each of the past ten years; the number of persons exempted from sitting the Irish examination for each of the past ten years, in particular the number of leaving certificate students exempted; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35217/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The statistical data requested by the Deputy is contained in the following table. The data have been compiled on the assumption that the Deputy is referring to Irish simply as an examination subject in its own right. These figures refer to all candidates who entered for and sat the leaving certificate Irish examination in each of the years listed. These include school based candidates, external candidates, repeat candidates and candidates entered for the examination through VTOS, BTEI and other analogous adult education schemes.

With regard to exemptions, it should be remembered that the exemption refers to the study of Irish in a recognised school and not to the examination itself. The figures provided for exemptions refer, in each year, to the number of leaving certificate candidates from recognised schools who also had an exemption from the study of Irish.