Over 100,000 Leaving and Junior Cert papers printed in Irish for this week's exams will never be used by students - and are set to be recycled as waste paper by the State Exams Commission.
Under rules dating back over a century, the commission is obliged to provide both English and Irish versions of every paper.
But the latest figures reveal that some 85 per cent of the papers printed as Gaeilge are never used by students.
The exams commission say the unused papers will be recycled as soon as the exams are over. It says it spends in excess of €72,000 per year on printing and translating Irish versions of papers. Under the Rules and Programmes for Secondary Schools, dating back to 1878, students have the option of answering in either English or Irish in the main exam subjects.
The commission tries to anticipate the level of demand for the Irish version of papers by asking students if they intend to request them in their entry form completed in January. Last year, more than 22,00 students - mostly from all-Irish schools - requested Irish versions of Leaving and Junior Cert papers. But the commission will still be obliged to print a further 120,000-plus papers, in the unlikely event of demand exceeding supply.
Unused exams papers are returned to the exams commission and most are recycled. The commission says it has little choice but to print so many Irish versions of exam papers.
In a statement to The Irish Times it said: "Although candidates must indicate their language preference on the entry form, completed prior to the examination, they may change their mind on the day of the examination. It is the responsibility of the State Examinations Commission to ensure that sufficient numbers of examination papers are issued to meet the needs of candidates. For this reason sufficient numbers of Irish versions of examination papers must be produced and issued."
Last year, the commission printed 59,750 Irish versions of Leaving Cert papers and 83,500 Irish versions for Junior Cert students.
Apart from Irish and English, Leaving Cert students can also be examined in Arabic, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Spanish and Russian.
Exams are also available in Czech, Dutch, Danish, Estonian Finnish, Polish, Portuguese and Swedish.