asked the Minister for Education what steps have been taken to implement the recommendation of the Commission on Irish that candidates, who but for failure in Irish at the leaving certificate examination in June of any year would have passed the examination as a whole, be given a supplementary examination in Irish in the autumn of that year.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Supplementary Irish Examination.
39.
This recommendation was accepted by the Government in the White Paper on the Restoration of the Irish Language which was published in January, 1965. It was implemented in August of last year when all secondary school managers were notified that in the autumn of that year and in the autumn of every year for the future the supplementary examination in Irish referred to by the Deputy would be held.
I might add that there is no basis for the suggestion made in a Dublin newspaper last Sunday that a supplementary examination would be held next autumn because of protests made concerning the leaving certificate pass paper in Irish taken by candidates earlier this month. In fact the preliminary circular in regard to that supplementary examination issued to secondary schools last month and before the leaving certificate examination began.