Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We began this initiative as a result of the recession and it is going very well. However, it operates completely from the bottom up in the sense that the teachers come to me free and the schools then fund the accommodation, which is just €25 per week. It is a very good initiative. I started it because the former Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, said that Chinese would be an optional subject on the junior certificate curriculum, although there is no sign of that now because there are such problems with the curriculum. We started preparing for this initiative four years ago, so it has been running for four years and it is going really well in Galway. We could talk about that separately, but I would love to hear Professor Gallagher's answers to my other questions.