Aspects of the performance of Irish 15-year olds on a test of scientific literacy in t OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA are described. conceptualization of scientific literacy is discussed and related to how it was asse in PISA 2003. The performance of Irish students, which was significantly above OECD average, is described, and related to the performance of Irish students in 2000 cycle of PISA. In describing students' performance, the lack of signific gender differences and the significant differences in relation to socioeconomic status school sector, and student uptake of science