Extra Time in State Exams for Students with Dyslexia and Dyscalculia: Motion Seanad Éireann — 2025-11-12 ============================================================ Fiona O'Loughlin (FF), Administrative Panel I second the motion. The Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, is very welcome to the Chamber. I acknowledge his work as Minister of State with responsibility for special education and the very reforming work he is undertaking, while acknowledging that this particular motion is under the brief of the Minister, Deputy McEntee. It is a very important motion. I commend my colleague, Senator Curley, our education spokesperson, on all the background work he has been doing in this area. Senator Crowe has been very vocal also. It is an important debate because as the Minister of State knows, within Fianna Fáil we see ourselves as the party of education. Throughout our history, we have established an unmatched record of commitment to education both as a great leveller and a great enabler. Education, of course, is the bedrock of our country's continued social and economic progress and we as a party have led every single significant expansion of Irish education. However, we believe also that our education system must support and nurture every student to reach his or her full potential. That is really important. It is absolutely essential that the State Examinations Commission develops a scheme of additional time for the 2026 State examinations. It is really important that our Government and the Department of education continually improve our education system to equip all students with the skills and supports they require to succeed in a rapidly changing world. As well as the academic skills, it is the skills and resilience my colleague, Senator Curley, has already spoken about in terms of positive mental health, resilience and confidence in being able to sit exams to the best of a student's ability. The range of accommodations that have already been provided under the RACE scheme has been designed to ensure fairness when facilitating candidates in demonstrating their level of achievement. We know there already is a range of accommodations that are available, but the last comprehensive review of this scheme was undertaken ten years ago. It did result in fundamental reforms, and it is important to say that, but, at the same time, we have a greater understanding and a better understanding, and it is really important that access to this scheme now is needs based rather than based on a specific diagnosis. That is in line with best practice internationally. The SEC has confirmed that it is working on a scheme, but this is urgent. It needs to happen for the 2026 exams. It is really important that the scheme will be available to all candidates, not just a pilot scheme. At this point in time, the RACE review is seeking the views of users through extensive consultation and engagement. It is really important that we encourage parents, students and schools to get involved with this campaign. As the Minister of State knows, I always talk about the lived experience. I have received a number of emails that I believe are really important in relation to this topic. I have selected a number of them to be able to speak about this matter here today. I am going to tell the Minister of State a little about a bit about Chloe. Chloe is in fifth year. She came home yesterday from the school exams very disappointed to the point of giving up. It was an art exam with a lot of difficult words and phrases, and today was going to be no better because it was engineering. Her mum fought very hard for her before her junior certificate, and just before the exams, she was granted a reader and rest breaks but no extra time. Chloe came home from the exams every day delighted because she now understood the questions and stayed in every exam until the last minute because, finally, they made sense to her. This reader will not be given again until the next State exam, which is in three years’ time. It is, therefore, difficult for the school and family to be able to assess how she is doing. That is an important point to make. We need to be able to assess between State exams. Every child deserves an equal right to education. Readers and extra time are not a luxury. They are just making the playing field equal and fair. I have an email from a secondary school teacher who spoke about the students she taught in maths over the years who should have qualified for extra time but did not get it. That led to a lack of morale and a lack of positivity and students feeling disappointed in themselves. This teacher said that, absolutely, the review is important to make the exam process less stressful for students. We all talk about exam time being a very stressful time. This is an interesting point to make. I had an e-mail from a mum who spoke about her daughter who has processing issues, which can be worked around while learning. Sadly, her ability to write was taken from her as a child due to a brain tumour. She talked about children who have gone through cancer and cancer treatment up and down the country who are back in school. They have had severe life-changing surgeries and treatments and very sadly, many drop out of education because they do not get the correct support. While this is outside the terms of this motion about dyslexia and dyscalculia, it is important to mention it. It is important that we look at other areas. Another young man called Shane, a student who is sitting the leaving certificate this year, suffers from hypotonia, which affects a person's ability to write or type for prolonged lengths of time and the ability to write at speed. It is currently not covered under the RACE additional time allowance, so I will mention that also. Another parent talked about her eldest son in sixth year who has had a diagnosis of speech and language impairment or developmental language disorder, which has a huge impact, but does not get any accommodations. At this point in time, it is hard to know the exact numbers, but we do know that every year roughly 6,000 students sit the junior certificate who have dyslexia, 6,000 students sit the leaving certificate who have dyslexia, and about half that number sit both exams with dyscalculia. It is, therefore, a very significant number of students, but it should not be that difficult to give them the extra time they need so that they can shine and to give them confidence in their ability to do their exams and perform well. I thank the Minister for being here. I ask her to take on board some of the other areas I have mentioned which should be included in the RACE programme. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2025-11-12/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:18+00:00 Sitting date: 2025-11-12