One career guidance counsellor says hiring unqualified teachers to mark State exams is not a surprise.
Brian Mooney was speaking as the State Examinations Commission (SEC) says a 'small proportion' of trainees have been hired to correct the Junior and Leaving Certificate papers.
But it says the majority are serving or retired teachers.
Brian told Pat Kenny this problem has been a long time coming.
"We knew the problem was there obviously for many number of years. [sic]
"Now the number of qualified teachers seeking to correct both the Junior and Leaving Cert has been decreasing.
"Obviously the two years of the COVID experience - many of those people actually retired, or decided they weren't going to do it because they weren't needed for those two years.
"We've come back this year and the problem was going to be there - and it is there."
He says the SEC "went to incredible efforts to try and find enough people to correct the processes.
"The delay has led to the fact that we will be waiting a number of weeks still to get those results."
'Supervised rigorously'
Brian says many people currently doing the Professional Master of Education (PME) - which replaced the old HDip - will be correcting the papers.
"They will obviously be supervised very rigorously by the State Examinations Commission to ensure the standards are maintained, and that the whole process is done in a way that every student is treated fairly".
And he says higher competition from other EU students could also be a problem.
"The other element here in the sense that having inflated grades obviously also advantages Irish students over competition from other students from other EU countries who would be apply to our CAO system.
"That number has grown exponentially from about 2,000 students, prior to Brexit, to 6,500 students now.
"So effectively.... our students are in a competition with the young people from all over Europe, who might previously have decided to go to the UK.
"But as they're now treated as international students in the UK - paying very, very high fees - many of them are now applying to our system.
"Our students with inflated grades actually have an advantage in that scenario - and the students coming from outside of the 26 counties have a disadvantage".
