Mr. Eamonn Moran:

As Mr. Tattan said, there has been some development work regarding redeveloping the Irish curriculum at primary and junior cycle level and this work is ongoing at leaving certificate level. Regarding the specification for leaving certificate Irish, there is a specification for language one and language two making discrete provision for Irish medium and English medium schools. This essentially provides an element of continuity for learners in their learning journey regarding the Irish language. It essentially follows on from the same approach taken with the framework for junior cycle Irish introduced in 2015 where there are two discrete language specifications for levels one and two. Originally, a single specification went for consultation for junior cycle but following stakeholder feedback, the development of separate specification for level one and level two was put in place. What is being done for the leaving certificate reflects the approach taken for junior cycle.

The NCCA has undertaken an extensive consultation process regarding the new specifications. The consultation period was extended on foot of engagement with stakeholders, who expressed their desire to ensure that all views on this would be heard. The consultation process finished last week. The idea is that the NCCA will essentially review the input from the consultation process and a consultation report will be presented to the NCCA council in early 2022. In early 2022, a report on the early enactment of junior cycle Irish will come to council. The output from that review will also feed into the work that is being done for senior cycle.

I will conclude by coming back to the Deputy's point that he only gets the chance to speak Irish abroad. At least, he speaks it somewhere, which is good. The specifications developed recognise some of the weaknesses in the early specifications in that the desire to provide students with experiences to allow them to enjoy using Irish creatively and critically sought to underpin the new specifications in that we have tried to stress the communication of Irish more in them.

An emphasis is placed on the aim of developing the student as an effective language user who takes ownership of his or her language learning journey. Rather than Irish being a language a student learns as a dry subject, and it is acknowledged the view the Deputy expressed, which has been expressed by others, is a stated view, the move towards learning Irish as a language one can communicate with underpins the work being done at junior cycle and senior cycle levels.