The multiplicity of third level courses has pushed up entry points, according to Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn.

“There’s about 45 institutions that are in the CAO system and ten years ago they had 430 odd courses, there’s now over 900,” he said outside Ringsend College today. “In many cases there’s very few places for those courses”.

Mr Quinn rejected claims that the 25 bonus points awarded for passing higher level Maths has lead to an increase in the entry points for courses, saying that the initiative has worked “fantastically” so far.

But he cautioned it may take “five years in a row, to see if we’ve got a pattern”.

“Only 15 per cent of young people did higher level Maths four or five years ago,” he said and added that since bonus points were introduced this has increased to 26 per cent, the highest on record.

However, the number of students achieving an honour at higher level in the subject has fallen by more than 10 per cent - from 83.3 to 72.9 per cent - since last year.

However, the Minister said that was “the wrong way to interpret the figures”.

“The actual instrument of rewarding bonus points for people for taking a more arduous course has had the desired effect,” he said.

In relation to the percentage drop in the number of A grades in higher level Maths the

Minister “we wanted a whole cohort of people to shift from doing ordinary level”.

He added that “bright” students in many cases had decided in a panic on the day of the exam, or in the preceding weeks, to take the lower paper.

“They were capable of taking the higher level Maths as we’ve seen, but they we’re nervous about not passing it,” he said.

While the number who failed higher level Maths has gone up since last year the Minister said the increase was “very, very small”.

He said 94 per cent who did the higher level paper got a D or higher. “That particular group of people who moved from ordinary level up to higher level have got the bonus points of 25 but...were never going to get an A in higher level in the first instance because they weren’t on that end of the spectrum”.

Mr Quinn said he hoped students’ results reflect the hours of study put in over the last few years.

He emphasised that congratulations should not just be focussed on the students, but extended to the families and schools that have helped them.

The numbers taking higher level Irish also increased from 14,358 in 2011 to 16,669 in 2013 and the Minister said that this reflects the increase in the proportion of marks awarded for the oral exam.

“This Government is committed to increasing the capacity of our young people to know and love the Irish language,” he said.

“Our new policy, which now sees 50 per cent of all marks available for the oral and aural components of the exams, is clearly reaping dividends.”

Almost 56,000 students sat the State exam this year. Mr Quinn noted that results for most subjects, with the exceptions of Maths and Irish, are in line with previous years.