Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 23 Jun 2010

Vol. 713 No. 2

Adjournment Debate

Health Services

Deputy Margaret Conlon

I am pleased to have the opportunity to bring to the attention of the House a matter which is of serious concern for constituents in my constituency, namely the provision of day services at the Darley Health Centre in Cootehill. I have had numerous calls about this from concerned persons and from Councillors McCarey, Igoe and Smith in Cootehill.

I, with my Oireachtas colleagues, attended a public meeting in Cootehill on Monday night last where we heard at first hand the concerns of the service users and their families. There were 300 people present, which shows the seriousness with which they took the matter, and they highlighted clearly the benefits which the senior citizens receive from attending the day centre, as it currently exists.

The Darley Health Centre opened its doors to the senior citizens in November 2006 and it continues to provide what is considered by health professionals and service users and their families to be a service of excellence. Is that not what we all are looking for? I look forward to witnessing this for myself on Friday when I visit the centre, and I would wonder how many local area managers have taken the time out to visit this wonderful facility.

The confusion results from a proposal to look at how day services are delivered in counties Cavan and Monaghan. I believe there has been misinformation or, at best, inaccurate information. This fed the rumour mill and, suddenly, the word was spread that the services are closing on 1 September.

When I contacted the HSE, it confirmed this was not the case. I accept the HSE's statement in good faith, but the services will not be provided in their current form.

Once again, the HSE has been reactive rather than proactive. I am led to believe that service users and service providers were given different information on the same night. This is unacceptable and has led to the current confusion. The users and their families need certainty and clarity. Surely they are entitled to these. I accept that the HSE is considering the introduction of enhanced services at Cootehill, which is certainly deserving of additional services like occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech and language therapy and so on. As a town, it has potential for delivering these services to the people of counties Cavan and Monaghan, but this does not mean the current day services must move.

For those who use the service, the words of praise were high. For many, the social interaction was as important, if not more so, as the other services provided. Many spoke of the benefit of meeting their friends. For many, it was their only opportunity to meet people on a weekly basis. Moving the service and its users to other rural locations would not work. The service would be fragmented and the same quality would not be provided. The Darley unit might become unsustainable. The other units would not be in a position to provide the same level or quality of service with the same expertise.

I watched the recent programme on the treatment of Alzheimer's patients. Many such patients avail of this service. The programme was emotional, but it made clear how any change in routine or venue would have significant consequences for patients. Are we not to put the patients first? If we learned anything from the programme, it was that services of excellence should remain where they are. This is the case in respect of Cootehill.

We need a proper consultation process with service users at its heart. They should continue to receive the same excellent service, which is delivering good outcomes. If it is not broken, it does not need fixing. I would be critical of many other aspects of health care provision and service delivery and action is required in respect of them, so let the HSE focus on fixing them instead of causing confusion, anxiety and worry for elderly people. I do not want the HSE to use this as a reason to prevent the acquisition of new services in Cootehill. The services can be located in the new premises.

The complete breakdown in communication must be remedied with immediate effect. It is unfair to all stakeholders, including those providing the new premises. They have invested time and money and adapted the premises to suit the HSE, but they have been treated unfairly. It is time for honest, frank and open communication between all stakeholders. Only then will a satisfactory solution be found. I look forward to the Minister of State's reply.

Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children (Deputy John Moloney)

I am taking this debate in the absence of the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney.

The Government's overriding policy is to support older people to live in dignity and independence in their homes and communities for as long as possible. Where this is not an option for whatever reason, the HSE supports access to quality long-term residential care, as appropriate. In accordance with this approach, a priority of the Government in recent years has been to develop a range of community-based supports, such as home help, home care packages and day-respite care. Between 2006 and 2010, additional investment of more than €200 million was provided to the HSE to develop such community supports for older people. Without these initiatives, many older people would experience inappropriate admission to acute hospitals or would be admitted to residential care earlier than might be required.

The HSE service plan for 2010, approved by the Minister in February, commits the executive to providing agreed levels of service nationally for these key community support areas. The plan includes day-respite care, often available through various day care facilities or as part of a home care package. Such services can be delivered directly by the HSE or in partnership with local voluntary or private providers.

Broadly speaking, the level of community supports for older people in 2010 is in line with the 2009 provision. This includes an increase in the number of home care packages available due to additional funding of €10 million provided in the last budget for this specific purpose. The key activity targets contained in this year's HSE service plan are almost 12 million home help hours to approximately 54,000 people, an increased home care package provision from 8,700 recipients at any one time in 2009 to 9,600 in 2010 and a total of 21,300 day care places, estimated to cater for up to 80,000 people. While this last target is slightly down from a comparable figure of 21,600 places in last year's service plan, the respite-day care levels agreed would generally be compensated for in 2010 within the overall home care supports component of the plan. It should be noted that any changes to these national target commitments, as part of the agreed HSE service plan for this year, would need to be notified to the Department of Health and Children.

Other important initiatives are also being undertaken at a strategic level to improve community-based services for older people. Arising from an evaluation of home care packages published by the Department in December, the HSE is progressing various improvements in home care provision. The Department accepts the need for a more standardised approach to home care generally, whether by public or private provision. It is worth noting that, this year, the HSE intends to finalise standardised access and operational guidelines for the delivery of home care packages, adopt a voluntary code of quality guidelines for home care support services for older people, progress a procurement framework for home care services and introduce procedural guidelines for the home help service to standardise access to and allocation of home help hours.

As the Deputy is aware, the HSE has operational responsibility for the delivery of health and social services nationally. She will appreciate that all developments relating to older people, including day care services at individual centres such as Cootehill, must be addressed in light of the current economic and budgetary pressures. The executive has been asked to rigorously examine how existing funding might be reconfigured or reallocated to ensure maximum service provision is achieved. This requires a stringent ongoing review of the application of the resources currently available.

The HSE recognises the challenges ahead in meeting the increased volume and complexity of need within our ageing population while also attempting to address the demand for integrated, co-ordinated and appropriate services based on the principle of maintaining older people at home for as long as possible. From this perspective in the Cavan-Monaghan area, the HSE is examining options to bring additional services into Cootehill for the benefit of people in the town and surrounding areas.

The local health manager established a strategic planning group for services for older persons in counties Cavan and Monaghan in March 2010 to consider, among other matters, the manner in which day care services for older people are being delivered across both counties. As a result, there may be some changes in the method of service provision. There are different possibilities with regard to the future provision of these services, each of which is being explored and negotiated currently. In the case of day care services for older people, it is the aim of the executive that older people requiring this service would access it as close to their homes as possible and within their communities. Day care services are provided at the Darley Centre to older people from Cootehill town and the surrounding community. The majority of older people attend weekly or bi-weekly on a rotational basis. I understand many users of the day care service in Cootehill also currently access other local day care services. There is capacity to increase this option to them.

An information session was held on 25 May, led by the general manager and key HSE personnel, to inform the current service provider and the voluntary organisations representing the local views of the older people of the proposed review of the day care services. A decision has been taken that the existing older people will continue to be provided with the same frequency of day care services, whether at the Darley Centre or a different facility. It was emphasised that it should not mean a reduction in service for any person currently attending day care in the Darley Centre. Every effort will be made by the HSE locally to meet the needs of each individual in the best way.

The timeline for bringing the new and changed day care service into operation is by the end of the first quarter of 2011. The HSE will continue to work with local services and people from Cootehill in developing new services. It is a matter for the executive to manage this service, bearing in mind all relevant factors, such as overall resources, local circumstances or evolving service priorities.

Hospital Waiting Lists

Deputy Michael McGrath

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this important matter for the Adjournment debate, which concerns waiting times for people wishing to see an orthopaedic consultant in the Cork area. Having researched the matter, it is not unique to Cork but appears to be particularly acute there. Before a person is added to a waiting list for orthopaedic surgery, he or she must see an orthopaedic consultant. That is where the bottleneck exists. The outpatient waiting list for those waiting to see an orthopaedic consultant is 3,356, according to the latest figures from the HSE for Cork University Hospital, CUH. Only 248 people were on the waiting list for orthopaedic surgery. Even a cursory analysis shows the bottleneck in the system is the outpatient appointment system. Looking closer at the figures, some 1,500 of the 3,356 people are waiting for at least 12 months. It is a very long time for someone in need of a hip operation or knee replacement surgery. Of those people, almost 350 are waiting to see an orthopaedic consultant for two years or more. This is a real problem in Cork that must be grappled with as an urgent priority. I am aware the problem exists elsewhere as well.

What is the root cause of the problem? Is it the lack of orthopaedic consultants in Cork? Do consultants spend too much time on private patients rather than public patients? Are they not complying in full with the new consultant contract? A constituent contacted me and told me he will almost certainly need a hip replacement. He has been told by the CUH that it will be at least two years before he sees an orthopaedic consultant. It is only at that point that he can join the waiting list for surgery. The National Treatment Purchase Fund cannot help him because it deals only with those on waiting lists for surgery for at least three months. While there is an outpatient initiative in place, it does not help those waiting to see an orthopaedic consultant in Cork this year. If he has money and is able to go to a private hospital and pay for the procedure, he can get it done quickly. Otherwise, he must wait at least two years before he sees a consultant and joins the waiting list for surgery. There is not equality of access in respect of treatment for that man or thousands like him. We must address the issue of orthopaedics urgently.

I ask the Minister to consider extending the role of the National Treatment Purchase Fund to take on outpatient cases. From my work on the Committee of Public Accounts, it is clear the quality of the outpatient waiting list data is very poor. When representatives of the National Treatment Purchase Fund appeared before the Committee of Public Accounts some months ago, they gave evidence that when they probed the data it was of poor quality. Many people on the outpatient waiting list data provided by the hospitals were deceased. Many had treatment carried out elsewhere and others did not need the treatment anymore. In many cases, the contact information was out of date. There must be a national audit of waiting lists and waiting list data must be validated. Waiting lists will not be as long if we establish the true picture in that regard.

A recent article in the Sunday Business Post stated we have a ratio of one orthopaedic surgeon for 54,000 people, the lowest ratio in western Europe. Many countries have a ratio of one surgeon to 15,000 people. There is an issue in CUH but also other areas of the country. It is not fair or reasonable to expect someone who urgently needs to see a consultant and subsequently needs to have surgery carried out to wait at least two years before going on the waiting list for surgery. I hope the Minister of State can shed some light on the situation and give people in Cork hope that they will not be waiting so long to see a consultant and gain access to the surgery they so badly need.

Deputy John Moloney

I am replying this Adjournment matter on behalf of the Minister for Health and Children. The division of trauma and orthopaedics at CUH is responsible for providing trauma and elective orthopaedic services in Cork. Trauma services are delivered in CUH, while elective orthopaedic services are currently provided at St. Mary's Orthopaedic Hospital. Currently, there are five permanent consultant orthopaedic surgeons engaged in the trauma and elective service, with two locum consultants engaged in the trauma service only.

At present, just over 300 are people waiting for elective orthopaedic treatment in the CUH, the majority of whom are waiting for less than three months. The HSE estimates that 97% of elective orthopaedic cases are treated within six months. For most of the remaining patients, there are specific individual reasons why surgery has not been completed. The HSE indicates that approximately 3,500 people are on the waiting list for orthopaedic outpatient appointments in CUH. Work is in progress to validate the waiting list to establish whether all of the people concerned still require an appointment.

The HSE is working to reduce orthopaedic waiting lists and a recent initiative is the establishment of a physiotherapist-led assessment clinic to triage patients waiting longest to be seen. Evidence shows that many patients on outpatient waiting lists can have their needs addressed by a physiotherapist working in a team led by a consultant orthopaedic surgeon. The HSE is optimistic this initiative will result in an appreciable reduction in the number of patients still awaiting treatment and in the waiting period involved. The HSE is also making arrangements with the National Treatment Purchase Fund for orthopaedic outpatient appointments to be offered by the fund to approximately 400 people who have been waiting longest to be seen at the CUH.

The business plan of the HSE south for 2010 prioritises the reconfiguration of acute hospital services in the region. This plan involves the creation of a single acute hospital system across the region, to achieve the best possible health outcomes for the people of Cork and Kerry. As part of this process, the HSE will reorganise some services across the six acute hospitals in the region. While complex care will tend to be centralised, the roles of local hospitals in the areas of day surgery, diagnostics and outpatient care will be expanded.

In May 2010, the HSE announced its intention to relocate orthopaedic services, including elective inpatient, rehabilitation trauma and day surgery, from St. Mary's Orthopaedic Hospital to the South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital, Cork. This change, which is planned to take place in 2011, will result in all orthopaedic services being provided in an acute hospital setting, with related specialties, including rheumatology, on site. Patients from Cork, Kerry and the wider Munster area will benefit from improved treatment and surgery for conditions including spinal and skeletal injuries and deformities, in addition to rehabilitation for damaged joints and muscles. The redeveloped facility will have three dedicated orthopaedic theatres, compared to two in St. Mary's Orthopaedic Hospital. It is also intended, following the move, to recommence orthopaedic surgery for children, for which HSE south patients must currently attend Our Lady's Children's Hospital in Crumlin. Trauma and emergency orthopaedic surgery will continue to be delivered in CUH, as is the current practice.

The HSE is working to develop national quality and clinical care standards across a range of hospital services and specialties and to improve the performance of outpatient services generally. The measures I have outlined represent a structured approach to improving access to orthopaedic services in the Cork area and to the longer-term organisation of services in this key specialty on a safe and sustainable basis.

Hospital Services

Deputy Deirdre Clune

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for giving me the opportunity to raise this important case. It concerns a young boy in my constituency. He is 14 years of age and he needs a serious operation to control severe scoliosis of his spine, which has been described as potentially life-threatening because the curvature in his spine is now affecting his lungs and his heart.

Last December, the consultant in Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin decided that this boy would need this operation but he has been unable to give the parents, and the young boy, a date on which it can be carried out. This boy's life could be at risk from something as simple as a chest infection from a cold or flu, and the severe pain he is enduring on a daily basis is causing untold anxiety, worry and heartache for his parents who are watching him in distress. They are looking at his condition deteriorate in front of their eyes. They are helpless in getting a solution for him.

Last week they had a return visit and the consultant said that from an initial assessment this boy's condition had worsened since the examination last December but he was unable to give a commitment for the surgery. I have contacted Crumlin hospital and the consultant has said the reason for the delay is the closure of St. Joseph's Ward, where there is severe limitation on the orthopaedic beds that will be required to aid this boy's recovery from surgery. This is a difficult position for the consultant and for his staff. There are other children who are deteriorating and have to be progressed more urgently, and their needs are being addressed.

There is also a limit on the number of patients who can be treated because they have to be put on a traction bed in St. Brigid's Ward after the surgery. There are currently two such beds. One consultant operates one and the other, who is the consultant dealing with the child in my constituency, has the other. There is severe limitation on bed space, and that is adding to the difficulties.

I would like the Minister to indicate what can be done for the boy in this case. Is it possible to get the procedure done outside the country under the National Treatment Purchase Fund? This boy has been on the waiting list for quite some time. His health is deteriorating. He is in constant pain. A cold or flu could be potentially life-threatening for him. I find it heartbreaking to deal with the parents who continue to get the same reply that nothing can be done due to cutbacks. The facilities and the services are not available for him and he is deteriorating on a daily basis in front of his parents' eyes. That is causing huge concern and distress, and I share their helplessness and frustration. They are intent on doing something for their child to improve his quality of life.

Deputy John Moloney

I am taking this Adjournment matter on behalf of the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney.

By way of giving some background detail, hospital care for children is provided in Dublin at three hospitals: Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin, the Children's University Hospital, Temple Street, and the National Children's Hospital, Tallaght. The priority of the Health Service Executive and hospital management is to ensure that services for children at each hospital are maintained at an optimum level.

Scoliosis is a very distressing and disabling condition for young patients and their families. Corrective surgery for scoliosis is carried out where it is clinically indicated. Last year, the HSE and the paediatric hospitals put in place measures to assess the clinical position of children with scoliosis attending Our Lady's Children's Hospital with a view to determining the most appropriate treatment in each case, including surgery where indicated. Those children requiring surgery have had their pre-operative assessments completed and surgery has been assigned based on clinical priority.

To date in 2010, in excess of 125 scoliosis procedures have been carried out in Our Lady's Children's Hospital and approximately 30 have been undertaken in the Children's University Hospital, Temple Street. Some 46 patients are currently on the waiting-list for treatment in Our Lady's Children's Hospital.

The National Treatment Purchase Fund has agreed to fund eight paediatric scoliosis surgery cases in 2010. The surgery will be carried out in Cappagh hospital; Our Lady's Children's Hospital is at present working to identify the patients who will be treated under this arrangement. The three hospitals are continuing to work together to address these issues. In addition, the HSE has informed me that a working group involving the three hospitals and chaired by the HSE is working on all the processes involved in treating children who have scoliosis and require surgery. That group is working to ensure the best use of resources in the three hospitals to address this issue. It is also working on the involvement of other hospitals outside Dublin in the case of patients who have been operated on to help increase the surgery rates in the three Dublin hospitals concerned.

Preparation for corrective surgery for scoliosis includes pre-operative assessment and may involve HALO traction. HALO traction is used in preparation for spinal surgery. It involves fitting a frame to the head, neck and body in order to immobilise the area. Patients may be in traction for six to eight weeks before they are ready for the next phase of treatment, which is the actual surgery.

Treatment of this type requires extensive physical space around each bed and, as a result, only a limited number of patients can be treated at any one time. Our Lady's Children's Hospital currently has two patients in HALO traction.

In terms of the specific case mentioned by the Deputy, I am not aware of the full detail and I do not want to give any false commitments because there is a waiting list but the reply is a standard reply and I would prefer to have a meeting with the Deputy some time tomorrow, if that was suitable to her, to discuss the case in more detail. I emphasise it is not at my discretion to allow someone jump a waiting list but there are more important aspects to the Deputy's presentation than is contained in the response and therefore I would like to discuss it with her some time tomorrow afternoon.

Deputy Deirdre Clune

I thank the Minister of State.

State Examinations

Deputy Olivia Mitchell

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to raise this issue which, as I am sure the Minister will appreciate, is very much on the minds of the pupils affected by this incident, albeit that it involved only 200 pupils who were largely constituents of my own. Many of the parents have been in contact with me.

I appreciate that the Minister has called for a report into what happened, and that is as it should be. It is important to establish how this happened to prevent it happening again but my concern is not to apportion blame but to ensure that the 200 pupils, who are primarily boys although some girls were affected, do not suffer as a result of a below par performance which inevitably is what they would have given following such an event happening to them.

I regret I have not so far heard the Minister indicate that she understands and acknowledges the impact on performance this incident has had on pupils who were already exhausted, as they approach the end of the leaving certificate. Many of the pupils involved had a physics examination in the morning and the accountancy examination in the afternoon, and were already over-tired at that stage. They were in the middle of doing what must be the most trying and stressful of examinations. After all these years I still have nightmares that I am doing the leaving certificate Irish poetry examination. I am sure there are very few people who do not have nightmares about the leaving certificate.

As a former teacher I am aware there are two immutable rules that every teacher drums into students facing into the leaving certificate examination. First, before they go in they should have a time management plan and stick to it and, second, before they start writing they should read the entire paper. These students could do neither. Even if they were fully compensated in terms of the time lost, and they were not, they had already lost out on those two important rules that must be in every child's head going into an examination.

Many parents have contacted me to relay their distress and that of the family at what has happened, and I am not sure the Minister fully appreciates how upsetting this incident has been for them. The leaving certificate is the most demanding examination any of us will ever have to do. The entire family is stressed and in a high state of tension during this very difficult time. All of the students affected are bright, higher level students who are hard-working and ambitious and, significantly, they are highly conscious of the importance of the points they need to get from this particular examination. What has happened to them is unforgivable and the only thing the Minister can do now is to assure them that the wrong that has been done to them will be righted in the marking process.

The Minister must direct that the marking scheme will be used to redress the damage done to the prospects of those 200 pupils. It is vital the Minister ensures they will not be penalised as a result of this blunder.

It was a monumental blunder for these students because the leaving certificate is a life-changing examination with no second chances. If this were a nationwide problem, it would have been all over the newspapers and the Minister would have moved to set minds at rest. However, because only a few hundred pupils have been affected, it has been downgraded.

The whole point of having a standardised examination is that everyone is treated the same in so far as that is possible. These pupils were not treated the same. Even from school to school, this problem was dealt with differently. One school was given a mere five minutes to compensate for the disruption, the consequences of which are incalculable. The Minister must give peace of mind to the pupils affected and their parents so they will not have to suffer as a result of a problem not of their making.

Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin

While I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to raise this important matter on the Adjournment, I am disappointed we cannot address it more substantively in the House before the summer recess.

The conduct of this year's leaving certificate and junior certificate examinations raises serious questions. There needs to be an investigation into the operation of the State Examinations Commission, SEC. Many have asked through various media if it is properly resourced and organised. The Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills has a responsibility to fully address these questions in the House.

There were major errors in this year's examination papers including incorrect figures in the business studies junior certificate paper, causing confusion and distress to students, and missing pages in the leaving certificate accountancy paper, causing confusion and a 45-minute delay to the examination in some Dublin schools. How was this allowed to happen? We need the answers to these questions not just through an Adjournment debate, but through a full question-and-answer session with the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills.

As I stated earlier today on the Order of Business, the SEC and the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills also need to account for the fact they allowed the printing of this year's State examination papers to be awarded to two firms outside of this jurisdiction in the neighbouring island in Britain after they were put out to EU-wide tender under EU rules. Did this lead to the errors in the papers?

Irish printers say the tenders could have been broken up to ensure the business remained in Ireland. In this economic climate, the decision to put the tenders out to Britain has cost jobs. Last week, another Irish printer, Futureprint in Baldoyle, County Dublin, closed down with the loss of 112 jobs.

We need the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills to be accountable for these matters. We need assurances from her on the accuracy of the papers. A line must be drawn in the sand. The Minister must also give a response to the House on future printing contracts. These were avoidable mistakes which should not be allowed to repeat themselves in next year's examinations.

Deputy John Moloney

I am replying to this Adjournment matter on behalf of the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills. I thank the Deputies for raising this matter and apologise to the students affected by this incident. We fully appreciate this is a highly stressful time for students taking State examinations. Everything possible should be done to ensure the smooth running of the exams for candidates.

The matter is being taken extremely seriously by the Department of Education and Skills and the State Examination Commission, SEC. The Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills has spoken to the SEC's chairperson who advised her it is reviewing the issues which arose with examination preparation and production this year. The chairperson has assured the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills that he and the other members of the commission will be considering these issues as soon as possible with a view to making any changes needed to avoid a recurrence. The chairperson will be reporting to the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills on the outcome of this work.

Due to the review being in progress, it would not be appropriate to comment on the matter in detail until the report of the review has been completed and presented to the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills. It is expected that a report relating to the production and collation of the examination papers, and what future steps can be taken to reduce the risk of recurrence, will be available by the end of July.

The three-hour leaving certificate accounting examination took place on Monday afternoon, 21 June. Accounting was offered as a subject in 514 schools for 5,171 candidates at higher level nationwide. A production error in the examination papers affected 207 of these candidates across 16 schools in south Dublin, 4% of the higher level candidates.

Upon learning of the error, arrangements were immediately made by the SEC to provide the students affected with the correct version of the paper by fax and e-mail. The SEC gave an instruction that students should start the exam using the original paper provided and be given the correct version as soon as it became available in the school. The SEC also advised the school authorities that additional time should be given to students to make up for any time lost that may have arisen as a result of a delayed start to the examination, or otherwise, as a result of dealing with this error.

The length of time each of the 16 schools took to deal with the error would obviously vary depending on several factors such as the time taken to contact the SEC for instructions, the time involved in collecting the incorrect paper and distributing the correct paper and the number of candidates in the centre.

While arrangements were being made in the affected schools to provide copies of the correct papers, the SEC gave the instruction that candidates should be advised to commence working on the paper which had been provided to them as it contained the entire section 1 of the examination.

The SEC has also apologised to schools and candidates for the error. It has operational responsibility for the operation of the certificate examinations. Running the examinations is an immense logistical operation. The 2010 examinations involve over 116,000 candidates in over 4,700 main examination centres and 8,000 special centres. Over 250 different test instruments, 90 curricular and 15 non-curricular subjects, over 6,000 examiners, 3 million individual exam papers comprising over 34 million pages, and just under 2 million test items are involved in this process. Of the 3.1 million examination papers produced by the SEC, approximately 85% are printed by external printing companies while the SEC has the capacity to print the remaining 15% of the requirements internally.

In the case of the leaving certificate accounting higher level paper where a production error affected 207 candidates in 16 schools, the SEC can confirm that those papers were printed internally.

This gives a background to the scale of the operation which is undertaken by the SEC each year in providing the State examinations across 13 days each June. While not negating the impact on the students who were affected by this incident, it is important to keep in mind the majority of State examinations take place without any difficulties.

One of the key objectives of the SEC is the provision of an examinations system of the highest possible quality. The aspiration of any examining body, including the SEC, is to preside over a system that is completely error free. Although the SEC has in place a range of procedures to enhance reliability and to minimise error, it is an unfortunate fact that errors can occur on examination papers. Such errors are most regrettable. When the error in the leaving certificate accounting paper higher level was brought to the attention of the SEC on Monday last, it immediately took steps to address the issue. In a large-scale, point-in-time examination such as exists in this country it is inevitable that unforeseen circumstances will arise in the course of the examinations. Although the SEC has in place a range of procedures to enhance reliability and minimise error, it is an unfortunate fact that errors can occur on examination papers. The issue for the SEC is how to deal with these errors as they occur.

In light of the huge volume of papers, some 3.1 million examination papers made up of 34 million A4 pages, produced each year the SEC has a formal process for scrutinising examination papers after they have been printed. The issue with the leaving certificate accounting higher level was a production error which was not identified by the SEC as part of its quality assurance processes. Once alerted to the error, the SEC took all reasonable steps to ensure the examination could proceed for the candidates concerned.

I confirm to the Deputies that a review of the issues that have arisen this year with regard to examination paper preparation and production is being carried out by the SEC and this will be the subject of early consideration by the chairperson and members of the commission. The review will also address any concerns in respect of the SEC processes that may have given rise to these issues and will inform any actions deemed necessary to prevent the recurrence of such difficulties in the future. The Tánaiste has asked the commission to keep her informed of its actions and its ongoing reporting to her on the conduct of the examinations will make specific reference to these particular issues.

As previously stated, this incident will be reviewed thoroughly by the commission and the Department looks forward to receiving a report on the matter and details of any changes in procedure to help ensure this will not recur in future. I thank the Deputies again for raising this matter and I apologise once again to the students concerned.

The Dáil adjourned at 10.40 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Thursday, 24 June 2010.