Extra Time in State Exams for Students with Dyslexia and Dyscalculia: Motion Seanad Éireann — 2025-11-12 ============================================================ Shane Curley (FF), Cultural and Educational Panel Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire. I thank the Minister for coming in this evening. I want to acknowledge that since the review committee made a recommendation on this in 2009, Deputy McEntee is the eighth Minister for education. Therefore, it is not as if she caused the problem; she just inherited it. Like Senator Scahill, I acknowledge that she is not the first Minister to have this on their desk. I also acknowledge that the Government supports the motion. I just want to bring a focus to one aspect of the motion, where it calls for the Minister for education to "ensure that extra time will be available for all students with dyslexia and dyscalculia sitting State Examinations in 2026". We need to come good on this expert recommendation in the 2026 exams. As a secondary school teacher, I always tried to reassure my students as they went into their terminal exams riddled with stress and anxiety that the leaving certificate is a test of what they know and not of what they do not know. If that is the case and it is something we are trying to promote as an adage, why does the leaving certificate set students with dyslexia and dyscalculia up to fail and why is it still failing our students? In my opinion a pilot programme is a complete cop-out by the SEC. It is not rolling it out aggressively across the board as recommended by the advisory group that was set up in 2009. I know the Minister mentioned that we are ahead of other countries on certain issues with regard to the accommodations we provide but if we take Italy, Norway, France, Netherlands, Finland, the UK and a whole host of other European countries, they average somewhere between 13% and 33% extra time for students in exams based on their dyslexia. We are a laggard in that regard. We do not give any extra time to every student with dyslexia. When I asked the SEC at the committee, it said it did not know if every student with dyslexia in 2026 would be provided with the opportunity to have extra time. They may not need it but it will be there if they do if this is rolled out. It is something that would be really beneficial. On the review that will be set up, I asked the SEC and it said it would cost money and would be sent out to tender. Inevitably, it will be carried out by third level researchers. These are people who, when they set exams for their third level students, give them ten minutes per hour or part of an hour in an exam. From an accountability point of view, and from the point of view of value for taxpayer money, this is just putting that out to review to tell us what we already know. The dogs on the street know these students just need extra time in an awful lot of cases. It will be a complete waste of money if we go down that route. I am urging the Minister to rein in the SEC a little on this and make sure it is accountable for its actions. I mentioned this to the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, earlier and will quote the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, when he was in the Seanad earlier in the year. We asked him if we could get a commitment that every student with dyslexia or dyscalculia in the 2026 exams would have extra time. He answered myself and Senator Crowe by saying: The key point is that this will be concluded and communicated in order that it will be in place for the examinations in 2026. We are at an advanced stage. The work is largely done. Let us finish it off. We need to come good on that. That was received so well by Dyslexia Ireland and by so many students with dyslexia around the country. They are so stressed about going into an exam they know was set up to make them fail. That was such a relief to them. If the Government has already sent out the message it is going to happen, we have to stick to that and make sure we come good on that. In 1966 Donagh O’Malley made a revolutionary decision to provide free second level education for every student in the country. In 2026, on the 60th anniversary, it would be a brilliant message to send out that we have heard the needs of those with dyslexia and dyscalculia. We have heard the experts and reviews from so many third level researchers across the globe who have recommended this in exam systems. I am asking the Minister to be revolutionary for the leaving certificate students in 2026 and to roll this out so that every student gets the time they need to sit down, process information properly and to give a reasoned, measured answer based on having enough time to actually think about it because time pressure solves nothing. In my opinion, as a former teacher, it is so pointless. It puts pressure on students to think quicker than their brains can process information. I just do not understand how we got to the situation where 17 years after the initial recommendation was made by an expert advisory group set up by a Minister, we are still here. I do not understand it. I urge the Minister to help us out. I will work with her and I really appreciate her coming in, but this has to be solved this year. We cannot let another year go by and another cohort of leaving certificate students go by who have been failed by the system. I would really appreciate the Minister’s help on that. --- 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