Minister ‘very concerned’ at allegations of electrician exam papers being sold

Allegations that electrician exam papers are being sold are being taken “very seriously”, the further and higher education minister has said.

James Lawless is taking details to Cabinet on Tuesday of reviews carried out over the summer of craft and trade apprenticeships after the issue came to his attention.

State agencies Solas and Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI) have been asked to consider whether referrals need to be made to Gardai.

Mr Lawless said he became aware of an issue with the electrician qualification process shortly after taking up office.

He said his office had received a protected disclosure about electrician exams, adding: “You wouldn’t want a surgeon operating on you that wasn’t properly trained. You wouldn’t want an electrician wiring your house or indeed your factory that wasn’t properly trained, either.”

He said he has had a number of engagements with the chief executives of Solas and QQI, and commissioned a review into the apprenticeship assessments.

He said he found that electrical apprenticeship exams tended to be “predictable” and similar from month to month and year to year, meaning the system was not as “robust” as it should be.

“The other issue that concerned me was: was there impropriety here?” he said on his way into Cabinet on Tuesday.

“Because exam papers are being allegedly sold, are made available for reward. That’s not good, that’s obviously a breach of ethics and integrity, but it may also be a criminal offence.”

Mr Lawless said he had sent legal advice he had received from the Attorney General on the matter to Solas and QQI and asked them to “seriously consider” appropriate referrals to An Garda Siochana.

He said QQI will have a report in the coming weeks on the exact scale of the issue with electricians.

The minister also requested a wider review of 78 different apprenticeships to make sure “this wasn’t rampant and widespread”.

“The reports that I’ve commissioned, so far the findings tell me that it’s not, that it’s localised primarily around electrical apprenticeship, but I hope that a signal goes out that if there is any other misbehaviour, that that has to desist immediately, and that’s why I’ve asked for criminal sanctions to be investigated.

“If anybody is leaking a paper the night before an exam, there are offences under the Education Act, but there’s also things like the Theft and Fraud Acts.

“If somebody is making a gain by deception, that could very well be a criminal offence.”

He added: “I’m very concerned. I’m not as concerned now as I was at the start of the summer, the reason being that I’ve had a number of reports commissioned and they’ve come back in.

“There’s a quality improvement programme being put in place, also the assessment process is being taken into the universities, into the colleges, where the apprentices spend their block time.”

He said he had also commissioned an independent reviewer to see if there was a public risk due to workplaces or homes being wired by people who were not adequately qualified.

“They have done full audit, and they reported back that that’s not a risk, that risk has been mitigated.”

Asked about whether qualifications for gas supplies was also a concern, he said: “They (an independent assessor) believe there are sufficient checks and balances included in the reports that I’ve commissioned over the summer to mitigate against that risk, but it’s something that I’m not done with yet. I’m keeping a very watching brief on it.

“It’s not good enough, it shouldn’t have happened, it should never happen again.”

A spokeswoman for Solas said it was aware of concerns about the assessments and was “taking these matters very seriously”.

She said: “We have implemented all necessary actions to urgently address these matters including the immediate withdrawal of any potentially compromised papers, issuing replacements to avert any threat to exam integrity.

“The assessment of craft apprenticeships operates within a highly distributed system and any allegations of the availability of exams/assessments for purchase have been and will be vigorously investigated and pursued by Solas in order to safeguard the integrity of the system.”

QQI has been contacted for comment.