Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 21 May 1996

Vol. 465 No. 6

Written Answers. - Examination Fees.

Liam Fitzgerald

Ceist:

190 Mr. L. Fitzgerald asked the Minister for Education when examination fees for the group, junior and leaving certificate were first introduced; the original fee charged; the years in which the fees were subsequently increased; the increase each year; the percentage of late payments/defaults that occurred in the case of each of the three fees for each of the last five years for which figures are available; if there have been cases of a school(s) paying the fee for hardship students; if so, the figures available by her Department that indicate the extent of this problem in respect of the past five years; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10111/96]

Minister for Education (Ms Bhreathnach)

The leaving and intermediate certificate examinations were first held in 1925. The fees charged at that time was two shilling and six pence per candidate. The day vocational (group) certificate examination was first held in 1947. The fee charged at that time was five shillings per candidate. The junior certificate examination replaced the intermediate and group certificate examinations with effect from 1992.

The fees were increased regularly over the years and it would take an inordinate amount of official time to ascertain details of all the fee increases sought by the Deputy. The position in regard to increases from 1984 is as follows:

Year	Leaving	Junior	Inter	Group
	£	£	£	£
1984	30	—	27	17
1987	33	—	30	19
1989	35	—	32	20
1990	36	—	33	21
1991	37.5	—	34	22
1992	40	37	—	—
1994	44	41	—	—
1996	46	43	—	—

With regard to defaults the position is that aggregate figures across all examinations are maintained. The percentage of defaults in each year from 1991 is given below:

1991	1.11 per cent
1992	2.04 per cent
1993	2.60 per cent
1994	3.80 per cent
1995	3.17 per cent

I am not aware of schools paying examination entry fees on behalf of candidates. In this connection, my Department operates a scheme for alleviation of fees in the case of necessitous pupils. A total of £500,000 was allocated to schools for this purpose in respect of the 1996 examinations. This was an increase of 25 per cent over 1995.

School authorities are advised that, for the purposes of the scheme, a necessitous pupil 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 doing the certificate examinations, and other circumstances which would denote a similar degree of domestic financial hardship.

Fees are charged on the basis that it is not considered unreasonable that people should be asked to make a contribution towards the cost of running the certificate examinations. In 1995 the total amount collected in examination entry fees was £6.325 million. The total amount spent by the Department, mostly on the remuneration of examiners and superintendents was in excess of £13 million.