I want to try to stick to the issues raised by the Deputy. He raised the issue of whether I will publish the public health advice. To be clear, the public health advice meant that we could model what the leaving certificate would look like. Using the public health advice, therefore, we modelled the leaving certificate with one exam per day, papers taking one and half hours, staggered entry to exam halls on a day-to-day basis and exams going from 29 July into September. Using that advice and data, we modelled the le…

-----and the Deputy is sending the message out today that they will be disadvantaged because they are in a disadvantaged school.

That is a disgrace.

Deputy Ó Ríordáin had his time. The Deputy had eight minutes. I have 20 seconds left. It is a disgrace. I can assure the Deputy I will not get into a row with him. The Deputy can call me.

The Deputy can call me and I can sit down with him and talk about this.

I will not allow-----

There are leaving certificate students listening to that. It is wrong that the Deputy is peddling that because exceptional students, whether in a community school, a DEIS school or a private school, will not be discriminated against because it is an all-school mark. It is a grade. It is a-----

It is a calculated grade coming from the school based on the performance.

I used the example of an incredible school in the city centre here, Larkin College, where I spoke to a teacher who talked about the progression within one year. That progression would be monitored. That progression will not disadvantage a student in any way.

If we get a new Government formed any time soon, there will be an education committee. The standardised system that we will look to bring in has not been finalised because we are going through the consultation, but it will be there shortly. The leaving certificate system is going into its 95th year. I know the Deputy spent most of his speech talking about its merits and demerits.

Give me ten seconds.

No matter what school they are in, every single student will be measured on their performance over two years. The teachers and the whole school community will have that evidence from the two years. That is what we are working on. I take on the Deputy's concerns.

I thank Deputy Gannon. He has been very constructive in this process. He highlighted the digital inequities. I know other people did, but the Deputy kept in touch with me and raised it. I thank him for that.

I hope I understood the question correctly. To be clear, the State Examinations Commission will have nothing to do with this process. Our legal advice states it cannot have anything to do with it, so that is the reason we are setting up the new group. There are two major stages; the first of which is the school-based stage involving teachers and their teaching colleagues. For example, there may be two or three geography teachers in a school. If there is one art teacher, for example, that teacher must link in with t…

The answer is "Yes". We have a continuity-of-learning section set up in the Department and we have been working on those issues for a number of weeks. We are looking now at continuity not just for this term but as some Members stated, for the transition for fifth-year students, and seeing where there are gaps for young people with disadvantage as well. We have a specific section working on that.

The Deputy asked why the exams were cancelled. They were not cancelled; they were postponed to a date on which it will be safe to do them. We are pursuing the calculated grades system. The Deputy is correct in saying that it was not only public health advice that informed what the leaving certificate would look like. The student voice was quite instrumental and very significant. I engaged with 16,000 to 17,000 students on Instagram one evening. This very loud voice was certainly a big factor. Mental health was a bi…

We are working on the issue of fifth years.

As the Deputy is aware, the issue of equal pay for teachers was the subject of significant conversations prior to the election and the pandemic. Anything relating to the issue will form part of the next pay talks. The Deputy referred to indecision. To explain, once we postponed the exams to 29 July, I instructed my officials to look at the calculated grades model. I had reservations about the model and went public in that regard. However, once I started informing myself through that process and seeing how the check…

I thank both Deputies. Deputy Danny Healy-Rae asked about mature students. They will be treated in the same manner as every other student in terms of data, regardless of whether they are outside school. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae gave the example of music tuition. If someone is getting tuition outside the school setting, data and information from the tutor will be critical in assessing that student. There will be other more difficult examples where students at home do not have access to tutors or are not using tutors…

The answer to the question is "Yes"; it is going ahead. We are working through it so we will have more information on that shortly-----