Ms Máirín Ní Chéileachair:

I will just come in ar cheist na Gaeilge. I am probably the best and worst person to ask about this because most of my career was spent as a principal of a Gaelscoil in north Kildare. I welcome what I have heard on foundation level Irish. It is necessary. I could not argue in any way with any of the comments made on Gaeilge fheidhmeach, Gaeilge labhartha and that we should see Gaeilge as a functioning and live language. However, we need to address the level we expect from scoláirí Gaeltachta, pupils who are living and having their education in the Gaeltacht, many of whom are speaking Irish at home. We have to address the level of capability of these students in addition to scoláirí i nGaelcholáistí, who now come from a broad base of Gaelscoileanna at primary level and a growing sector of Gaelcholáistí at post-primary level. We also need to look at how we expect these pupils to engage with the Irish language at leaving certificate level.

It needs to be a spectrum. We need to engage with children and students at all levels of ability and competency. We could have a round-table discussion forever on Gaeilge and languages, but we need to take into account that we are now looking at an integrated language curriculum at primary level. We are looking at introducing foreign languages at primary level through Post-Primary Languages Ireland, PPLI, and almost 500 primary schools have signed on for the new language sampler model. It shows the interest there is in promoting language as a concept, not just Gaeilge or European languages. There is a major debate to be had, but all students have to be catered for and we must make sure, number one, if we are making certain that Gaeilge is a requirement for primary teaching, for example, that all students have access to an honours-level course that would enable them to access that. The different abilities and competencies should be acknowledged, as they are in other subjects. It needs to be acknowledged in Gaeilge freisin.