Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 11 Mar 1993

Vol. 427 No. 8

Written Answers. - Free Enrolment for State Examinations.

Brendan McGahon

Ceist:

21 Mr. McGahon asked the Minister for Education if she intends to introduce free enrolment for State Examinations and the Central Applications Office for students whose parents are in receipt of a social welfare payment; and if she will make a statement on the matter.

Minister for Education (Ms Bhreathnach)

There are a range of measures in place to relieve hardship from examination fees. These include:

—waiver of the course fee of £100 for repeat Leaving Certificate school candidates whose parents or guardians are medical card holders.

—allieviation of examination fees in the case of any pupil attending school who is experiencing particular hardship. The amount of the reduction in the case of any individual pupil concerned under this scheme is determined at the discretion of the school authorities subject to the total amount of such deduction not exceeding the specified amount allocated to each school. For the purposes of the scheme a pupil in need may be defined as a child from a home where genuine hardship exists because of unemployment, prolonged illness of parent, large family with inadequate means, single parent, more than one child from same family doing the Certificate Examinations, or other circumstances that would indicate a similar degree of domestic financial hardship.

The Central Application Office is a private company. Accordingly, I have no direct responsibility for, or involvement in its operations, including setting the level of the application fee. But I am satisfied that it is an efficient operation. Any relief for needy applicants would have to be by way of a direct exchequer subvention.

The present package of measures applying to second level fees costs almost £400,000. The cost of increasing the eligibility for assistance would depend on the criteria used. For example, if examination entry fees were abolished for pupils whose parents were medical card holders the cost would be about £1.7 million.

Given the many competing demands for resources within the education sector I am anxious that all expenditures be as effective as possible. However, I am committed to use the resources at my disposal to combat disadvantage and if I am persuaded that the examination fees represent a barrier to educational access for disadvantaged pupils I will be open to proposals to review and to improve the existing package of measures. However, I will have to emphasise that I would also need to be convinced that this was the most effective way of spending the money involved to combat disadvantage.