The fees for this year's state exams have been waived.
There's normally a fee of €116 for the Leaving Cert, and €109 for the Junior Cert.
But the Education Minister, Norma Foley, says they won't apply this year.
It was confirmed earlier this week the exams will go ahead in the traditional format - with no accredited grades.
When asked why it wasn't possible for predicted grades to be provided, Education Minister Norma Foley said:
"I want to be very clear we were not and not in a position to provide for accredited grades in the same fashion that they were provided for last year.
That is largely due to the fact that one in four of the class of 2022 who did not sit a Junior Cycle exam - through no fault of their own there was no exam in 2020.
"People would wonder why that is relevant and it's relevant because in the accredited grade system the teacher provides her estimated mark, or his estimated mark.
"And that teacher knows his or her student as I would expect them to know, but not necessarily another student's ability or capability.
"In a national exam, there needs to be comparability or standardisation and to achieve that what we've done in the past two years is that we've relied on the student's own data - the Junior Cycle data.
"This year, 25% - or one in four - students do not have that data.
"So we would not be in a position to provide for accredited grades in a system that is as fair as it was provided for last year."
