I will tell the Ceann Comhairle the reason why-----

I am not suggesting any lack of truthfulness.

No, I am not suggesting that, absolutely not. I would never imply that, Minister.

The key point of the question was not answered. The context was given and the structures that existed and the people who were responsible for testing was outlined but the Minister did not tell us whether the type of testing that should have been happening did happen. That is the key question that Deputy Barry was asking. There is a piece to this that I am not getting. In response to me earlier, the Minister, Deputy Ryan, said the flaws were spotted during the process of the leaving certificate applied. I am not sur…

If the Minister cannot provide the answer on the floor of the House, perhaps somebody from the Department can do so after the fact. It seems to me very plain that the testing that should have been happening was not happening. The Department employed an outfit that did not test as it should have tested. It bought an application that did not work. That is the reality of what happened. I am speaking not about the Minister but the Department. We are dealing with the consequences of that process at this point. The key p…

I raised with the Taoiseach the issue of calculated grades about two weeks ago and I have to say he was somewhat dismissive. The news this afternoon is absolutely extraordinary. I am astounded, but the ones who will be even more astounded are the many students who worked extremely hard and had their grades downgraded. For them, there are countless questions. One of the main ones is whether those whose grades were downgraded by standardisation can now be revised upwards. Will they then be potentially able to access …

I recently launched a Sinn Féin policy proposal, entitled "Keeping Our Schools Open", in which we identified the key elements for ensuring that we keep our children in school safely and sustainably. This will be just as challenging as getting schools open in the first place was. We have identified clearly that protecting the incomes and jobs of workers and parents is a crucial component. The reasons for this are obvious. Parents want to do the right thing by their children, themselves and their children's schools. …

I have three issues to raise with the Minister. The first concerns Cork Airport and the aviation sector generally, as also referred to by previous speakers. Cork Airport is responsible directly for some 2,200 jobs and indirectly for another 10,000. Those thousands of families are deeply worried at this time. Ryanair is threatening to pull its base in Cork, as is Aer Lingus. While I recognise that decisions were made in the interests of public health regarding international travel during the Covid crisis, which I su…

For many years, taxi drivers have felt they have not been listened to, and that they have been the last to be listened to when it comes to transport. Yesterday, they came out to say they will not take that any more. There are 22,000 taxis on the road. There are between 1,000 and 1,500 in my county, County Cork, and the drivers' families rely on them. They face enormous uncertainty and potentially very significant hardship. It is a really worrying time to be in the industry. What the drivers are demanding is not unr…

That is incorrect-----

It has been acknowledged several times by the Opposition-----

We did acknowledge it-----

-----on the floor of the Dáil and at committee. We have acknowledged it.

First I wish to correct the Taoiseach. He stated earlier that Sinn Féin had not acknowledged the fact that the schools-----

That is not actually what he said, in fairness and it has been acknowledged by many Deputies from my party. It is welcome but as I have said to the Department and the Minister, we must ensure that our schools stay open, which is as great a challenge. On Friday and again yesterday many students found out that the leaving certificate results given by their school had been adjusted downwards significantly by the standardisation process. Many people who made major sacrifices over the course of 12 months are deeply disa…

We did not support-----

This is my first opportunity to engage with the Minister of State in this brief. I believe her to be a decent person and I wish her the best of luck in what is a challenging brief. I hope she will use all her energy to try to change things. It will not be easy but it is vitally important she do so. I wish to raise with the Minister of State two issues, the first of which I suppose has a crossover with the brief of the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, but I think it is relevant to her own brief as well. I refer t…

This question is peculiar in that I submitted it to the Minister for Education and Skills and it was referred to the Minister present but were I to submit it to him in a few weeks' time, it would be transferred across to the Department of Education and Skills. The primary concerns involved are educational and I have listened to a lot of discussion on very legitimate concerns about the application of the 20 day rule where there is illness, as raised by Deputy Funchion and others, and it is right and valid. I also ha…

This section is on the way out of the Minister's Department and perhaps he will give us a timescale on it because I am not sure. In the meantime, the Minister has an opportunity to shape it. I have a view that there is a cohort of students who could and should have benefited from access to the school completion programme and particularly from access to the home school liaison scheme in recent years but have not done so because there has been no expansion of DEIS band 2 for more than ten years. An awful lot of schoo…

I understood the point on redeployment. Is it with regard to this particular return exercise that is being worked on? Perhaps it is additional work. In general, I am in favour of the expansion of the home school liaison scheme and school completion programme. The expansion of DEIS to another cohort of schools is an important part of this, not just DEIS band 1, which is important, but also DEIS band 2. Some of the very important work done by school completion officers includes breakfast clubs. From the Department's …