Leaving Cert Results: Take-up of honours Irish rises in 2016

There has been another jump in numbers choosing to take higher level Leaving Certificate Irish as the emphasis on the spoken language appears to reap further benefits.

Nearly 20,100 people who took the subject in June are getting a result for honours Gaeilge this morning — a 20% rise since 2013, when 16,665 did so. The figure is 3% higher than last year, significantly more than the slight overall rise of 0.9% for total Leaving Certificate students from 2015.

The allocation of 40% of total marks in Irish to the oral exam taken by students around Easter has been cited as the major factor in the swing towards the higher level exam in recent years.