In four week's time this State may have its first league tables of Leaving Certificate examination results. The ranking of schools by their performance in the 1998 exam is likely to appear on a national basis in two newspapers and, on a regional basis, in one newspaper.

This follows requests, under the Freedom of Information Act, by The Sunday Times, The Sunday Tribune and The Kerryman for information on a school-by-school basis, which would allow the compilation of such tables. However, the Government can appeal the decision at the High Court.

The decision, published by the Information Commissioner Kevin Murphy, on October 7th, follows more than a year's consultation and contemplation. The Sunday Times first made its request on July 27th, 1998.

In addition to requesting written submissions from a number of bodies, members of his staff held meetings with representatives of the INTO, ASTI, TUI and NPC-Post Primary, the Catholic Primary Schools Managers' Association, The Church of Ireland Board of Education, the Association of Community and Comprehensive Schools, the Joint Managerial Body, Secretariat of Secondary Schools, the Association of Managers of Catholic Secondary Schools, the Irish Vocational Education Association, Educate Together and Gaelscoileanna. A diversity of opinions emerged with the teacher unions and the parents' body, among others, opposing the compilation of league tables.

During this time, the Education Act 1998 came into law. The Department of Education opposed the release of the information on on six grounds including Section 53 of the Education Act which authorises the Minister for Education and Science to refuse access to any information in a particular set of circumstances; that is to say, circumstances which would allow the compilation of the exam results of schools.

Murphy decided that section 53 of the Education Act could not be applied retrospectively. All of the requests were made prior to February 5th 1999 when the Education Act was enacted. Murphy's 37-page decision states: "I can see nothing to persuade me that the Oireachtas was other than content to block requests made after February 5th 1999. The publication of one set of league tables in no way prevents the Minister from blocking future requests. In the circumstances I am not satisfied that it is inevitable that the legislation be interpreted as retrospective."

THE second reason opposing the release of information was because the results would be used to compile league tables. Murphy rebutted this, stating that a public body is not permitted to discriminate between requesters on the basis that some requests or requesters are "more worthy than others and that the worthiness of a request can be judged by reference to the motives of the requester".

The Department further contended that its work would be substantially and unreasonably disrupted in the compilation of the required data. But, Murphy sent members of his staff to visit the exams branch in Athlone where they found two sets of records - on paper and in electronic form. The records already existed and it was a matter of extracting the relevant data rather than creating new records. A new piece of computer code would have to be written and there might be a cost to the Department. Murphy said he was "satisfied, based on discussions between the Department and my officials, that the amount of any such fee is unlikely to be prohibitive".

NEXT, the Department contended that release of the results on a school-by-school basis would "prejudice the effectiveness of tests, examinations, investigations, inquiries or audits conducted by or on behalf of the public body concerned or the procedures or methods employed for the conduct thereof". It went on to state that examiner supply is a critical issue with full co-operation of teachers required. Murphy accepted that the Department had concerns that any withdrawal of co-operation by teachers in the conduct of the exam would have serious consequences for its ability to conduct them.

But, he noted that teachers had argued against league tables on the grounds of concern for the education system and the educational welfare of the students. It was, therefore, unlikely that these parties would take steps which would have just that effect so he did not accept that granting the present requests would prejudice the procedures or methods employed for the purposes of conducting future Leaving Cert exams.

Murphy's response to the Department's claim that league tables would lead to industrial relations difficulties was that it is reasonable to expect that teachers will recognise that the information is being released because of the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act rather than any desire on the Department's behalf to promote league tables.

The worry that release of information would disclose personal information led to Murphy stipulating that the information would only be released in cases where more than 10 students in a school sat a particular subject at a particular level.

His overall decision was: "In brief, I have found no provision in the FOI Act which would justify the refusal to release the records requested."