Mr. Donald Ewing:

We do not have a breakdown of the figures that the Deputy asked for, I am afraid, but we know that many students with an Irish language exemption go on to study a modern foreign language at second level. That is sometimes presented as something incredible that it happens, but actually what we know is that if young people can focus on one language in primary school, they can get that language to a level of competency where they can manage another language, be it Irish, Spanish or Italian, at a later date, and do that quite successfully. Sometimes those figures are presented as evidence that the system is being cheated because young people with dyslexia with an exemption go on to study languages at a later date. For me, it is actually a sign of the success of the system, that young people have competency in a language that then allows them to learn another language at a later date. Learning both, or two or three, at the same time, is going to be too demanding for people with the most severe dyslexia.