Mr. Hubert Loftus:

Supporting the 20-year strategy for the Irish language is an important priority for the Government. Within education, we must follow through on and support that as best as possible. The Deputy is in the south Dublin area, which is one of the most difficult areas for us in terms of getting sites and all of that. It is challenging there.

The Deputy asked how we support Gaelcholáistí and Irish provision generally.

There are many of the same issues with Gaelscoileanna at primary level. It is looking at where there is a pipeline of new schools but that will be limited. We look to see where there are a number of schools being provided and what is the possibility that at least one of them would be an Irish medium school. This speaks to the point raised that in a straight vote, they may not necessarily come out on top but overall they are popular and that is something we are aware of.

Regarding thresholds, we support Gaelcholáistí. The threshold for a standard post-primary school is about 1,000 pupils. It is lower for Gaelcholáistí, with 400 being the threshold we use to establish a school.

The third relevant piece is in the south Dublin area. I am not familiar with the constituency boundaries of south Dublin, I speak more generally about south Dublin. I can think of three Gaelcholáistí, two in the Stillorgan area and one in Rathfarnham. Within those, the two in Stillorgan are over-subscribed and the one in Rathfarnham is under-subscribed. When one looks at it as a whole, there are opportunities there but there is probably also an issue for the Department to take a fresh look at the opportunities for the expansion of the schools in Stillorgan, Coláiste Eoin agus Coláiste Íosagáin.