Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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Question 174: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills if she will consider recommending a publication (details supplied) to the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, for inclusion on the list of prescribed works for study at leaving certificate level; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23955/10]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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Advice on prescribed material for the Junior and Leaving Cert exams is submitted to my Department by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment. No texts are prescribed for study by students preparing for Junior Certificate English. The syllabus allows for an open course, in which teachers are free to choose a range of texts which they consider appropriate for their students. Texts for inclusion in the lists of prescribed works for study at Leaving Certificate level are chosen by a sub-committee of the course committee for senior cycle English, which in turn ratifies the final selection for each year. The work is managed by the education officer for English and the poetry in question has been passed to him for consideration by the committee.

The NCCA regularly receives texts and recommendations about texts for inclusion in courses and they are grateful that authors, teachers and others take such an active interest in the literature they would like to see our young people study. Each of these submissions is considered carefully by the relevant committee or sub-committee. Prescribed texts are notified to schools a number of years in advance and must be notified in time to ensure that educational publishers are in a position to provide an adequate supply of texts. At this stage, prose and poetry have been prescribed for Leaving Certificate English up to and including the 2014 examinations.