Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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Question 256: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills if she will confirm that some compensatory marking formula will be applied in the correction of the higher leaving certificate accounting papers for those students who were disrupted as a result of the distribution of incomplete papers; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28541/10]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The State Examinations Commission (SEC) has statutory responsibility for operational matters relating to the certificate examinations including making arrangements for the marking of examinations.

I have been advised by the State Examinations Commission (SEC) that a production error in the Leaving Certificate Accounting Higher Level paper affected a number of schools in south Dublin on Monday 21 June,2010. As a result of this error the affected papers were missing their centre section. The incomplete papers, which contained the full Section 1 which is mandatory, was provided to 207 candidates in 16 schools. In total 5,171 candidates were entered for Leaving Certificate Higher Level Accounting examination in 514 schools nationwide.

As soon as the SEC learned of this problem arrangements were immediately made to provide the students affected with the correct version of the paper by fax and email. The SEC gave an instruction that students should start the examination using the original paper provided and be given the correct version as soon as it became available in the school. The SEC also advised that additional time should be given in order to make up for any time lost as a result of this error. The amount of time to be added on at the end of the timetabled session as a consequence of dealing with this specific error in the Leaving Certificate Accounting paper in individual examination centres would have varied depending on a number of factors such as the time taken to contact the SEC for instructions, the time involved in collecting the incorrect paper and distributing the correct paper and the number of candidates in the centre.

The SEC has also informed me that this issue is being kept under review. The SEC has also apologised to the students and schools affected by this error.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Question 257: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills, further to Parliamentary Question No. 470 of 22 June 2010, if she will direct the State Examinations Commission to bring forward a defined programme with specific dates, to give effect to the right of every leaving certificate student to get an official leaving certificate; the reason the State Examinations Commission thought it appropriate to withhold all leaving certificates for the duration of a five year court case when only a small number of persons would have been affected by the dispute over the annotation of leaving certificates; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28544/10]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The State Examinations Commission (SEC) has responsibility for the operation of the certificate examinations. As I indicated in my response to the Deputy's previous question (No. 470) the recent High Court judgment confirms the earlier view of the Circuit Court in October 2007 that the actions of the SEC, and my Department prior to the establishment of the Commission in 2003, in annotating certificates where a core element of a subject is not assessed, is permissible under Irish law and is not discriminatory.

The position remains that the ruling and the legal issues relating to it must be examined, and the logistical, ICT and workload issues associated with this year's peak examination period, which is still ongoing, must be considered.

The SEC assures me that it is considering the issue as a matter of urgency and proposes to make an announcement regarding the arrangements for issue of the formal Leaving Certificates for the period 2006 to 2009. The announcement will be posted to the SEC website at www.examinations.ie and be the subject of a Press Release.

While all candidates received provisional results, their final certificates had been withheld pending the outcome of the legal proceedings. Any candidate who has sought added confirmation of their final results in respect of the period 2006 to 2009 has been furnished with a certified statement of results by the SEC, with the normal fee for such statements, currently €13.50, being waived by the Commission. The Commission sought legal advice following the determination of the Equality Authority, which was confirmed following the judgment of the Circuit Court, and subsequently implemented this approach.