Department of Education to appeal league table decision

The Department of Education has announced that it will appeal to the High Court against a decision by the Freedom of Information Commissioner to release a league table of School examination results. Last month, the Freedom of Information Commissioner, Kevin Murphy, ruled that three newspapers should have access to the results of the 1998 Leaving Certificate examinations. The Department of Education had earlier refused these papers access to the results because it believed they would cause 'substantial and unreasonable interference' with the work of the Department. It also said that the examinations were not conducted to compare the performance of schools.