Deputy Barry, please. I call Deputy Fitzpatrick, on behalf of the Regional Group.

As I am sure the Taoiseach is aware, there is great concern and anger about how leaving certificate grade inflation, which we witnessed on Monday, will impact more than 20,000 Central Applications Office, CAO, applicants who are using the previous leaving certificate results. I had assumed that the calculated teachers' estimated marks combined with the standardisation process, overseen by the Department of Education and Skills, to bring these grades more in line with previous years would have resulted in more consistent results when comparison was made with previous years. The breakdown of results shows clearly that teachers overestimated the marks of their students. One in six, or 17%, of teachers' estimated grades ended up being reduced downwards to limit the scale of grade inflation. Despite this, we still see an overall grade increase of almost 5%. Looking at individual subjects, we see big jumps in H1 grades, ranging from 79% in applied mathematics to 54% in geography, 43% in English, 32% in biology and 31% in mathematics.

Overall, the proportion of students achieving top grades in higher level papers has jumped significantly since last year. As a result, we can expect the CAO points requirement to increase across the board. Putting this in context, if an average student received a higher grade in four of seven subjects, this would result in him or her achieving an increase of 45 CAO points. The net effect of this is that the points required for CAO courses will rise significantly. This is completely unfair to students seeking to apply through the CAO system this year who completed the leaving certificate in 2019 or earlier. I have spoken to a number of students from County Louth who completed the leaving certificate in 2019 and are applying to the CAO in 2020. They are at a complete disadvantage.

Many students who sat the leaving certificate examinations in 2019 and earlier have since been working to save money to be able to afford to go to college this year. They must be protected and given a fair chance. With no system in place to ensure the fair treatment of this group of students when the CAO offers are released on Friday, it is now clear that the 20,000 students affected will be at a severe disadvantage when competing for a course place against those who received their results through the predicted grading system. These applicants do not have the same representation as those who were due to sit the leaving certificate this year and must not be ignored by the Government. Is the Government willing to do the right thing by these 20,000 applicants to ensure they are not severely disadvantage by this process? If the Government is not willing to take decisive action to rectify this impending problem, the subsequent unfairness will be abhorrent.

The Government has referred to the fact that additional college places are being made available this year. These extra places will not be nearly enough to fully offset this predictable injustice. We must support and encourage this group of students. Education is the key to a successful career and we must afford every opportunity to students to allow them reach their full potential. We cannot have a situation where a certain group of students is totally disadvantaged as a result of a situation over which it had no control. I appeal to the Government to do the right thing by this group by taking whatever measures or actions are necessary to ensure the CAO offers are fair to all students and not solely to the class of 2020.

Yesterday was a special day for the thousands of students in the class of 2020 and their families. It is fair to say these students have endured a lot of anxiety and uncertainty over the past year due to the severe impact that Covid-19 has had on their lives, education and leaving certificate examinations. School communities and teachers articulated more than a sigh of relief that we have got to the stage when results have been issued.

I pay tribute to all involved in the calculated grades system, including the technical people within the Department of Education and Skills, and the extraordinary work that has gone into this solution. The overall point that should not be lost on us is that this has been a unique year because of Covid and no ideal solution can be found, other than to sit the leaving certificate examinations. The Deputy will know that the examinations have always involved a standardisation process. The process undertaken this year has been comprehensive.

On grade inflation, it must be pointed out that there was no change of grade in approximately 79.2% of cases. It was not 20,000 students who sat the examinations in 2019. My understanding is that approximately 9,000 of prospective college applicants undertook the examinations in 2019 and the figure of up to 20,000 relates to applicants who have sat the examinations since 1985. Some of the affected 9,000 students may get third level places. There is a range of variables that will play into what will happen next Friday when the points for the CAO competition are published. It is difficult at this stage to be precise about the challenges that may arise for last year's leaving certificate students who are seeking to secure places in colleges, institutes of technology or other areas this year.

The Minister with responsibility for higher education, Deputy Harris, and the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Foley, have been working on this matter and there will be more than 5,000 additional places available at third level this autumn to be assigned through the CAO system. Of that number, 2,000 provide for demographic increases and another 2,000 come from the July stimulus package and human capital initiative. A further 1,200 places were agreed by the Cabinet two weeks ago. All of those places are designed to try to reduce pressures in key areas and approximately 370 of those additional places apply specifically to high grade areas. Much will depend on the decisions students make.

Particular variables that will impact on demand this year include changing patterns of learning with more blended learning, accommodation and transport factors and students who may be seeking to defer or reapply in subsequent years. Reduced opportunities in the economy may also become a factor in people's decision making. The pandemic itself will have an impact on the decisions that students make about courses.

A lot of courses will be online this year. That may impact on student decision-making. The uncertain patterns of international students travelling could also impact on places.

Time is up.

We are keeping a very strong watch on this and will do everything we can to try to ease the pressures on those securing places this year.

I agree with the Taoiseach that this is a unique year. This group has a lot of questions and I feel he has not answered them. It is clear that the CAO points requirement will be greatly inflated this year due to the predicted grades system. A level playing field is needed. Grades increased in 2020 by 4.4%. This Government is, like the previous Government, always asking for solutions. A real solution is that students who did exams in 2019 and previous years would have their results increased by 4.4% so they would be treated the same as those who received results in 2020. That is one solution the Government could consider.

Everybody deserves an education. As the Taoiseach said earlier, education is the key to a successful career and we must afford every opportunity to students to ensure they reach their full potential. In Dundalk, we have a college called DkIT. I am very proud of it for the simple reason that 80% of the students who attend it have parents who never had the opportunity to get a third level education. Education is very important.

This is a unique year. I ask the Taoiseach to make sure that nobody is stopped from getting a third level education. All students should be given a course. If someone does a course he or she is not capable of doing, he or she can drop out. People should not be stopped from having a third level education.

As I said, the Government has approved 5,000 extra places this year to try to ease the pressures. The calculated grades model is robust and as fair as it can possibly be. The decision to take out the socio-economic profiling of schools was correct and was broadly welcomed in the House.

The Government does not have within its capacity the power to create places for every single person who wants a place in third level, unfortunately. Third level institutions do not have the capacity. Ministers have worked with third level institutions to secure additional places. The Deputy will understand that for practical courses involving laboratories and so on it can be difficult to expand numbers. Significant work has been put into providing resources to get increased numbers at third level this year. We will monitor the situation.

The Minister is continuing to work with colleges this week to see if he can get additional places. We will see where this lands on Friday and what the nature of the challenge will be for those students to whom the Deputy referred. It was not possible to have separate calculated grades for the 2019 cohort who are applying this year. This is a once-off and unique situation. All the work involved has been about trying to make the system as comparable as possible with previous and future leaving certificates.