It is “very possible” that thousands of Leaving Cert students got higher grades than they should have because of the calculated grades errors.

That is on top of the 6,500 students who were marked down due to a mistake in the computer code for the system.

Speaking in the Dáil last night, the Education Minister Norma Foley said the final figures will become clear in the coming days.

She said that, if 6,500 students were marked down due to the coding error, there is “every chance” the same number were marked up.

She said it is “absolutely very possible” that this would have led to students qualifying for courses they otherwise would not have gotten into.

Procurement

Minister Foley also confirmed that officials did not “run a full procurement process” when searching for a company to write the code for the system.

Polymetrika International was paid a total of €163,000 to write the code.

Minister Foley says they did not have the time to go through the usual full process of procuring a coder.

“In order for the calculated grade model to be of value to students, it was known that results had to be issued by early September to make Irish and international deadlines for entry to higher and further education.

“So, there was no time to run a normal, full procurement process as I understand.”

The Department of Education said it used a process called ‘Negotiated Procedure without Prior Publication’ which is used in cases of “extreme urgency.”

Leaving Cert

Speaking last night, Social Democrats education spokesperson Gary Gannon said any student who missed out on a college place due to the error should be now get one.

“Let’s make room for them,” he said. “we have an opportunity now in the sense that a lot of our lectures are moving online.

“That creates a potential. Where there are labs and issues of medicine that may not be possible but we have got bigger exam halls, we have bigger units and we have to adjust.

“Universities will require more funding, they have been calling out for that already and if that is the consequences of these actions, the State needs to react.”

College places

Yesterday, the Irish Universities Association warned that many colleges are already ‘maxed out’ and will not be able to offer extra places to students.

The coding error saw some students’ Junior Cert results factored in incorrectly.

Instead of combining their Junior Cert results in Irish, English and Maths with their two best core subjects, the programme factored in their two worst.

It also factored in CSPE results, instead of discarding them.