An exams invigilator in the Republic of Ireland was sacked yesterday after he was caught 'tweeting' on the job.

But the State Examinations Commission insisted there was never any threat to the integrity of the security of the exam.

Last year a supervisor in Co Louth accidentally handed out the wrong English paper, forcing 50,000 students to re-sit the test.

The commission, which has introduced much stricter security measures this year, moved rapidly yesterday when it was advised that postgraduate student Brian Og O'Rourke was posting tweets from his mobile phone while he was supervising the exam.

The use of mobile phones by supervisors or students is specifically banned during exams.

He had quipped to his Twitter followers that "I do pity the girls that have me supervising, im young, handsome & probably very distracting ha ha".

As it happened, he was supervising in a special centre with just one student.

He made a series of remarks about the Leaving Cert and the World Cup including the following:

"Its not as if you 'wont understand', but yeah, i actually enjoyed my Leaving Cert 'cept the Euros were on during it"

"Thankfully, i did mine a couple of years ago, then again, you dont get stressed by an English exam really, i mean, you speak the language, so"

At one stage he complained that the exam was "dragging on a wee bit" and the seat he had to sit on "is the least comfortable seat ever".

He was supervising a student at the Institute of Education in Leeson Street who was in a special centre where she was using a laptop. The student had been given what's called Special Accommodation by the exams commission.

She was in one of 10 special centres in the institute -- the centres are provided for students who may have need of a scribe, or somebody to read the papers, or the use of a laptop.

David Ball, institute spokesman, said the particular student's exam had not been compromised in any way.

He confirmed that the supervisor had been suspended and that there would be a new supervisor today.

When the institute was contacted by the commission it alerted the superintendent that he was being suspended forthwith -- losing out on €112 a day.

He was said to have been "gutted" by what had happened and declined to make any comment to the Irish Independent.

His tweets were immediately removed from his Twitter account.

The commission issued a statement saying that "superintendents of separate centres are reminded that they are expected to give their entire attention to the work of superintending/ reading/scribing, and that the use of mobile phones, reading of newspapers, or books, writing letters, sewing, knitting or engaging in any occupation other than superintending/ reading/scribing, during the examinations, is incompatible with the proper discharge of their duties."

Source Irish Independent