Leaving Certificate students are set to sit traditional exams for the first time in two years, as part of the Government's bid to address grade inflation.

The Green Party leader Eamon Ryan says it would not have been possible to have a hybrid model for this year's State exam.

The issue goes before Cabinet later with the Education Minister Norma Foley recommending a return to the written exam format - although there will be greater question choice on all the papers.

The Children's Ombudsman, sixth year student groups and opposition parties had all called for a hybrid model like that used in the past two years.

But the Cabinet is considering a traditional exam only. Minister Ryan says a hybrid model would not have been fair.

"I don't think it was possible to do a hybrid Leaving because of the difficulty [that] a quarter of the students hadn't done their Junior Cert.

"Therefore how you do accredited grades wouldn't be possible - certainly not in the same way it was done last year.

"So I can understand some people's disappointment, but I think it's the fairer outcome."

He says the lack of Junior Cert data for many students means limited options.

"I think looking at other data you're into kind of maybe school performance.

"We looked at that - the political system looked at that previously - and thought that wouldn't be fair.

"You'd be judging students on what school they went to, rather than their own historic results, and I think that wouldn't have been fair".