Ms Bláthnáid Ní Ghréacháin:

In response to Senator Healy Eames's question about the greater catchment area, the very dispersed geographical nature of scoileanna lán Gaeilge necessitates having a wider catchment area. On the question of using percentages as a means of including minorities, I know of some schools with up to 25% allocated for immigrant children. While we commend this proactive effort at inclusion I would be slightly concerned that it may be more inclusive not to ring-fence places and to leave the system open to ensure that places are offered to every child where there is not an issue of over-subscription. This returns us to the question of over-subscription and supply and demand.

In response to Senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh about the scoileanna lán Gaeilge and the role they play in the strategy, they are often regarded as the nucleus of Irish language development. There is too much responsibility placed on Irish-medium schools to save the language. The State has a greater responsibility to ensure that the future of the language is not placed solely in the hands of a school. The predominant aim of any Irish-medium school is to provide an excellent standard of education and they do that through the medium of Irish. I do not think it is right that they should also be responsible for ensuring the language does not die, basically. On the question of the implications if our recommendations are not accepted, one of the implications would be that accusations of elitism would thrive. Over-subscription issues make people unhappy and often in that case, elitism and other accusations are used. There is no proof that these schools or the system are elitist. We know this from our own statistics which I will happily forward to the committee. Children of all profiles are represented in the schools, such as children with special educational needs, children with different linguistic backgrounds and children of all abilities.