Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 30 June 2021

Joint Committee on the Irish Language, the Gaeltacht and the Irish Speaking Community

Múinteoirí Nuacháilithe agus a gCaighdeáin Gaeilge, Deontais le hÁbhar Oidí a thabhairt faoi Thréimhsí Foghlama sa Ghaeltacht mar chuid dá n-Oiliúint agus Curaclaim nua na hardteistiméireachta T1 agus T2: An Roinn Oideachais.

Photo of Dara CallearyDara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire agus roimh na hoifigigh.

Cuirfidh mé ceist as Béarla le bheith soiléir. I welcome the fact that the Gaeltacht grant is back. I agree with Deputy Connolly that the immersive experience is a major gap but cannot be helped at the moment. Why is the grant, however, only payable to those who are in State-funded colleges? Tá a lán daltaí agus mic léinn atá ag freastal ar choláistí príobháideacha. Tá sé suimiúil go bhfuilimid ag cur fáilte roimh a bheith ag dul ar líne agus nílimid ag cuidiú le daoine atá déanamh na cúrsaí ar líne. What is the position?

The second question is connected to the standard, an caighdeán agus leis an gcéad chuid eile den chruinniú, a Chathaoirligh. A very significant amount of work is underway, and clearly the Department is working hard, but it is all happening in bits. The Minister mentioned putting down seeds. The seeds need to go into a garden and I bring the Minister back to the recommendation of the committee that was communicated to her which is that we need a full strategy on education from preschool to third and even fourth level and all of the work that is underway should be within that strategy. In the Minister’s opening remarks she mentioned that was part of the Straitéis 20 Bliain don Ghaeilge, the Irish language 20-year strategy. Tá fuinneamh iontach ann i láthair na huaire faoi chúrsaí Gaeilge agus na Gaeltachta. There is tremendous energy there now and much of this is coming from education, from that sector organically it has to be said, starting with the naíonraí ag dul go dtí na Gaelscoileanna agus na Gaelcholáistí. That energy should be used to grow not only the Gaeltacht schools which were mentioned by the Minister but also the non-Gaeltacht schools where there is interest in speaking Irish. Education is the foundation of reinvigorating our knowledge and that is the lived experience that we are seeing from so many communities around the country.

I put it to the Minister that what we need is an overall overarching strategy and a garden for all of those seeds from preschool to fourth level which seeks to address the challenges. I see in the Minister’s remarks that she mentions that the initial analysis shows that there has been a very significant increase in standards. An overall strategy would also address the standards issue for teachers. I therefore put it to the Minister that we need an overall education strategy, not as a sub-strategy of the 20-year strategy for Irish. Things have changed enormously for the better in education sa Ghaeilge agus sa Ghaeltacht ó 2010 go dtí anois. There is a different and much more ambitious energy and we need to see a departmental strategy that reflects that on-the-ground energy.

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