Norma Foley said she is prepared to ‘look at everything on the table’, as many schools struggle to secure enough staff for the academic year.

Norma Foley said the department and schools needed to ‘work harder’ when a child was unhappy and not included.

More than 136,000 students will sit this years State Examinations which run from today until the 25th of June.

The State Examinations Commission confirmed this year's Leaving Cert results will be issued on August 23rd

The NAPD supports the scheme, but said the success of the initiative hinges on the ability of principals to navigate the procurement process which falls solely on them. 

At the same time, there were 199,292 students in Catholic schools accounting for 47.8 per cent of all enrolments at secondary level.