The full findings of a Department of Education inquiry into grade inflation are expected to show far greater levels of increases in individual grades at second and third level than the figures referred to by education minister Batt O'Keeffe in the Dáil last week, the Sunday Tribune understands.

Amid claims by both Fine Gael and members of an influential lobby group that O'Keeffe's presentation of the results to the Dáil was little more than a "whitewash", his spokeswoman has confirmed that he had yet to read the full findings of the inquiry, which was submitted to him earlier last week.

Despite this, he outlined what he labelled the "key findings" of the review to the Dáil last Thursday.

While these showed that the proportion of Leaving Cert students scoring A or B grades rose from 27% in 1992 to 43% last year, figures were not released for individual grades or for higher ordinary and foundation level subjects.

Similarly, O'Keeffe did not reveal the breakdown of second- and third-class degree awards, or failure rates at third level.

Simon Quinn, a member of the Network for Irish Educational Standards, which has campaigned to highlight the problem of grade inflation here, said previous studies conducted by his group had shown even greater grade inflation than the trends highlighted by O'Keeffe last week.

Its analysis of Leaving Cert grades between 1992 and 2006 showed that the rate of A grades across the 10 most popular subjects at higher level had increased by 144%, while the rate of increase in A grades at ordinary level was a startling 520%.

"It's positive that they have finally investigated this issue. But to have a report and not to have any conclusions is not good enough. We need a full inquiry," he said. "Lecturers have repeatedly told us that they are under pressure to increase grades."

Responding to a request from this newspaper for a copy of the full findings of the analysis conducted by his officials, a spokesman for the minister said he expected to place these on the department's website next week.

Brian Hayes, Fine Gael's education spokesman, said he was "astonished" to hear O'Keeffe had not read the full findings of the review before outlining them to the Dáil. He said the role of the various bodies associated with ensuring standards also had to be examined in more detail.

"This is a real case of circling the wagons. I think the minister is winging it, to be quite frank."