An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
Dail Éireann — 2020-07-07
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Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (SF), Cork South-Central

I raise an issue relating to a small category of people who are facing a significant injustice. The Irish Times yesterday reported the case of Mr. Finn Robertson, a 17 year old from Dungarvan, who will not receive an estimated grade for politics in the leaving certificate because he is self-taught. He now believes he will not get the points he needs to study politics and journalism in the University of Limerick. I also give the example of Kinga Szalaj who wants to study medicine. She completed her leaving certificate last year and while she received good points, it was not enough to get her into a medical degree. She taught herself at home with the help of homeschool.ie and themathstutor.ie because she could not afford grinds. Her health professions admission test, HPAT, results were excellent - in the 92nd percentile - but because she does not qualify for a calculated grade, she will miss out on the opportunity to study medicine despite those excellent results. Does the Taoiseach accept that those students are facing an injustice? Will he engage with them to try to find a solution for them so that they do not miss out on places in third level through no fault of their own?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2020-07-07/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:48:24+00:00
Sitting date: 2020-07-07