Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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320. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if direction has been given from his Department to the State Examinations Commission to review all refusals of readers, given the recent High Court ruling on the provision of readers for students with dyslexia; if such direction will be given in advance of the leaving certificate examinations, if it has not been to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13234/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The State Examinations Commission (SEC) has statutory responsibility for operational matters relating to the certificate examinations.

In relation to reasonable accommodations in the examinations all applications are considered in the first instance by the SEC. The SEC provides a rationale for its decisions in refusing accommodations where these are not warranted at the initial decision stage. Candidates who are unhappy with the SEC's decision following consideration of their application for support have a right of appeal to an Independent Appeals Committee. However, it has been the case that a decision rationale was not also provided to appeal applicants following an unsuccessful appeal to the Independent Appeals Committee. Applicants not satisfied with the decision of the Independent Appeals Committee can apply to the Ombudsman or the Ombudsman for Children to consider their complaint.

A recent Judicial Review judgement in the High Court quashed a decision of the Independent Appeals Committee to refuse accommodations applied for by a candidate under the RACE scheme, as it did not give any reason for the Committee's decision.

The SEC has advised me that it has taken the following steps in light of the High Court Judgement. The SEC has assessed the implications of the judgement for all candidates for the 2016 examinations who had appealed the SEC decision not to award accommodations sought and whose appeal had come before the Committee prior to the date of the judgment.

In the first instance, the Independent Appeals Committee reviewed the cases of the 81 appeals which clearly mirrored the situation of the candidate involved in the High Court case and last week notified the candidates involved, through their schools, of the accommodations which have now been granted. Over the past week the Independent Appeals Committee has also reviewed the appeals of all others who had previously made an appeal to the Committee in order to confirm their initial decision and provide a written rationale for their decision to refuse accommodations in each case.

This process is now complete and letters of decision have been issued to the candidates via their schools. Of a total of 404 appeals heard by the Committee prior to the date of the judgement on 29th April, 57 had been granted in full by the Committee at first hearing; 81 have had some or all of the accommodations applied for allowed by the Committee in light of the Judicial Review judgement; the remaining 266 applicants have had their case reviewed by the Committee in light of the judgement; remain ineligible for supports but will receive a letter from the Committee setting out the reasons for their decision to refuse the appeal.

The Deputy may wish to note that the SEC's review of these matters was not just confined to applications for readers; all previous appeals against decisions to refuse applications for reasonable accommodations have now been reviewed.

Any new appeals which have come before the Independent Appeals Committee, since the date of the judgment, have been considered in light of the ruling and the Committee is now providing written reasons in respect of any decisions they make to refuse applications for reasonable accommodations.

The Reasonable Accommodations scheme is demand led. It has not been subject to any budgetary cutbacks in recent years. Supports are provided to any candidate who meets the conditions of eligibility for the accommodations applied for.

Figures are not yet available for 2016 as the SEC continues to process late applications up to the start of and throughout the written examinations. In 2015, 16,194 candidates (14%) of the total cohort of over 117,000 students sitting examinations had some form of reasonable accommodation provided to them in order to enable them to access the certificate examinations.