Irish 15-year-olds have ranked among the best in the world when it comes to various school subjects.

The results of an OECD international study for 2012 has found that Irish students are among the best in reading and are performing significantly above the OECD average in maths and science.

For science, Ireland is ranked 9th out of 34 countries, which is up five places since 2009. We rank 4th out of 34 for reading and 13th for maths - bringing us above the OECD average.

In reading, Irish students have outperformed countries like New Zealand, Australia, Northern Ireland, the UK and US and is performing at a similar level to Finland in reading and ahead of all other European countries.

While our performance in maths is above the OECD average the report says there has been a small decline in the average score across OECD countries between 2009 and 2012, and this helped to Ireland to move to the above average position last year.

'Higher achievers underperforming compared to other countries'

The Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn has welcomed the results - saying he is delighted to see Irish students performing well and congratulated those who took part in the international assessment.

"I am particularly delighted to see the improvement in the science scores of our students" he said.

But he says while the results are encouraging, we are already implementing strategies to improve our rankings.

The Department of Education says Irish maths and reading scores have remained relatively unchanged since Ireland first participated in the programme in 2000, but - in contrast - the performance of Irish students in science has improved compared to all previous cycles.