Ninth Level Ireland

“A High Court judge will rule on Tuesday on the lead challenge over the calculated grades process adopted for the Leaving Certificate 2020 exam in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Mr Justice Charles Meenan heard the lead action by Freddie Sherry, who was a 2020 Leaving Cert student at Belvedere College, Dublin, over some five weeks before the case concluded in early February …” (more)

[Mary Carolan, Irish Times, 1 March]

“A High Court judge will give judgment within the coming weeks on the lead challenge over the calculated grades process adopted for the Leaving Certificate 2020 exam in response to the Covid pandemic. On Wednesday, Mr Justice Charles Meenan, when case managing some 60 other actions brought over the calculated grades, said he was adjourning those for further mention to March 10th …” (more)

[Mary Carolan, Irish Times, 17 February]

“The High Court has dismissed a bid by a former Human Resources Director with the University of Limerick’s to halt an investigation into his alleged role in the suspected misuse of funds regarding the college’s pension scheme …” (more)

[Aodhan O’Faolain, Limerick Leader, 11 February]
[The ruling is here.]

“A challenge has been mounted against a decision of An Bord Pleanala to grant planning permission for a 216-bed student accommodation development in Cork City. The action has been brought by an association that represents local residents, who are opposed to the demolition of an existing structure and the construction of the student housing development consisting of 30 apartments located at Orchard Road in Cork City …” (more)

[Ann O’Loughlin, BreakingNews.ie, 17 December]

“The standardisation process used to estimate Leaving Certificate grades would not have discriminated against students attending disadvantaged schools even if data about schools’ past performances in the exam had been included, the High Court has heard …” (more)

[Ann O’Loughlin, BreakingNews.ie, 10 December]

“Changes made by the Minister for Education to the model used to assess calculated Leaving Certificate grades systematically disadvantaged good students attending high performing schools, the High Court has been told. Feichín McDonagh SC, for student Freddie Sherry, said expert evidence will show the Minister’s decision not to use historical data on school’s past performances in the Leaving Cert resulted in a disproportionate reduction in the grades his client had received from his teachers …” (more)

[Aodhan O’Faolain, Irish Times, 9 December]

“The Minister for Education breached commitments to keep the 2020 Leaving Certificate fair and accurate and comparable to other years’ results by not including historical school data in the calculated grade process, the High Court has heard …” (more)

[Independent, 9 December]

“The Minister for Education breached commitments to keep the 2020 Leaving Certificate fair and accurate, and comparable to other years results, in failing to include historical school data in the calculated grade process, the High Court has been told …” (more)

[Aodhan O’Faolain, Irish Times, 8 December]

“The High Court has permitted a limited cross-examination of the assistant secretary of the Department of Education during the lead challenge over the Leaving Cert calculated grades process. That action, by Freddie Sherry, a Leaving Cert student at Dublin’s Belvedere College, is due to open next Tuesday with more than 30 other cases awaiting its outcome …” (more)

[Mary Carolan, Irish Times, 1 December]

“A draft document circulated by the director of the Leaving Cert calculated grades office referred to the ‘negative consequences’ of excluding historical school data from a calculated grades model as including ‘better performing disadvantaged schools also [being] thrown under the bus’, the High Court has heard …” (more)

[Mary Carolan, Irish Times, 25 November]

“A memorandum considered by Cabinet before approving the exclusion of historical school data from the Leaving Cert calculated grades process cannot be disclosed on grounds of Cabinet confidentiality, the State has told the High Court …” (more)

[Mary Carolan, Irish Times, 24 November]

“A draft grade standardisation model showed a fee-paying Dublin school would see a substantial reduction in its traditionally high Leaving Cert grades, the High Court has been told. The model showed Mount Anville would see a reduction in some subjects by up to 70%, the court heard …” (more)

[Independent, 21 November]

“A Corporate Relations Manager who claims she injured her neck as she attempted to pick up a box of information leaflets at an event in Budapest to promote UCD has sued the university in the High Court …” (more)

[Ann O’Loughlin, BreakingNews.ie, 1 October]

“As calculated grades were released by the Department of Education, offers from the Central Applications Office (CAO) were made on Friday September 11th 2020. There was a mixed reaction to these results and subsequent offers, which was exacerbated by a media frenzy, as it was the first ever year of the ‘calculated grades’ process …” (more)

[Maebh McCarthy, University Express, 30 September]

“A second home-schooled Leaving Certificate student who was excluded from this year’s Calculated Grades process has won their case in the High Court. In his ruling Mr Justice Charles Meenan said the Department of Education’s failure to provide a system for the unnamed student was irrational, arbitrary, unfair and unlawful …” (more)

[Emma O Kelly, RTÉ News, 24 September]

“Even if students legally challenging the calculated grades system win their cases, they may not get their chosen place in college this year. The wheels of justice turn slowly and it will be the end of October, at the earliest, before a ‘lead’ case gets under way in the High Court …” (more)

[Shane Phelan, Independent, 24 September]

“Students at a fee-paying south Dublin school who received their Leaving Certificate results earlier this month have initiated legal proceedings against the Government. Papers were filed on behalf of the students and the board of management at St Kilian’s German School in Clonskeagh in the High Court on Tuesday …” (more)

[TheJournal.ie, 23 September]

“A student who sat the Leaving Certificate in 2019 has withdrawn her High Court challenge to the 2020 calculated grades system after securing a place on her course of choice …” (more)

[Vivienne Traynor, RTÉ News, 23 September]

“The skies are darkening with the chickens coming home to roost. The High Court cases are the big test of a Leaving Cert which may have seemed two weeks ago to have been a success. In reality, it was always nothing short of a shambles. If the courts rule in favour of the students, then the whole house of cards will come tumbling down as a disorderly queue forms for those with similar claims …” (more)

[Colm O’Rourke, Independent, 20 September]

“A student who sat the Leaving Certificate in 2019 has brought a High Court challenge after missing out on her first choice of university course …” (more)

[RTÉ News, 17 September]