First, I pay tribute to former Senator and MEP Brian Crowley and extend my sympathies to his family and to the Cathaoirleach at this difficult time.

Today the State Examinations Commission, SEC, published the guidelines for extra time in this year's leaving and junior certificate exams for students with very specific learning difficulties. It is positive that there is some acknowledgement that there is a problem, but that is as far as I see today's action going. It is an acknowledgement that a problem exists but it does nothing to solve it. The SEC has given ten extra minutes across the board in every single State exam this summer, whether it is a short junior certificate exam or a three-hour-and-20-minute exam in something like English, where students are pushed to the pin of their collar, regardless of a learning difficulty, to actually finish the exam. A meaningless ten minutes has been added on to a lot of these exams but that does nothing for students who are really crying out for help. In the UK, for example, students get a minimum of 25% extra time in their exams if they have similar learning difficulties to the ones that today's action addresses, or tries to address. In Ireland, with this action, students will have an extra 5% on average across the leaving certificate. That is not good enough. It screams tokenism. It screams an effort to just pacify people and keep them quiet, to brush the problem under the carpet and not actually address it. Across-the-board measures do not work. Every subject is different and every student learns in a different way. We need much more comprehensive action that actually addresses the problem.

I would like the Minister to come to the House to discuss this. There is still time. The leaving certificate exam is still five months away. We can do an awful lot more for students in this country. Today's action is an acknowledgement that a problem exists and no more.