One-third of students take optional oral Irish

Nearly one-third of Junior Certificate students this year did an optional oral Irish test that was not conducted by State examiners despite union opposition to such practices.

The 16,529 students getting a grade today that includes marks for oral Irish make up 32% of those examined in the subject. They did the test at 309, or 43%, of the country’s 720 second-level schools.

In 2007, only 339 students did the oral Irish at Junior Certificate, but that had risen to 7,387 in 2012 and at less than 160 schools and to 14,172 students at