Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Aontaím leis an Teachta go bhfuil suíomh speisialta ag an nGaelainn sa Stát seo agus is maith an rud é sin. Táim féin agus an Roinn sásta gach iarracht a dhéanamh chun an suíomh sin a chaomhnú. Tá an-dul chun cinn déanta againn in áiteanna áirithe. Tá a fhios agam go bhfuil níos mó ag teastáil. We have done quite a bit. I am very conscious that we have more to do. It absolutely is the ambition of the Department that there would be the provision of Irish education in as many places as possible to meet the needs. We have shown some progress in terms of even giving special consideration to the numbers that are required, as I have said, going from 1,000-pupil schools down to 400 for Gaelscoileanna. Equally, the Deputy has referenced things like the reduction in the number of hours for the teaching of Irish. I want to comment quickly on that because I know other people have to come in.

We are very conscious that more and more is being demanded of our schools every single day. It is fair to say that, wherever there is an issue within society, society looks to the schools to address it. The curriculum is therefore being expanded and expanded. This is a consequence of significant consultation undertaken by the NCCA. The general public are asking us to give greater weight to well-being, SPHE, corpoideachas and all of that. We have seen an increase from one and a half to three hours in that regard. Every subject across the curriculum, not just the languages, has had to accommodate that increase. However, while that has been accommodated and while there has been a reduction in the time for language 2, which in an English-medium school is Irish, there is no change in the time made available for those at stage 1, that is, junior and senior infants. That is unchanged at two and half hours per week. At stages 2 to 4, from first class right up to sixth class, there is a reduction of 30 minutes, which means that there are three hours available. However, it is very important to say that there is also a block of what we call flexitime made available to the schools. I trust in the professionalism of the staff to know that a particular area might need more attention. If that area is Gaeilge, the school can use that flexitime block to augment the teaching of Irish. If staff identify a different area, they will use this time for that area. There is a continuous conflict in that more and more is being asked of the curriculum and more and more needs to be done. We are doing our very best to accommodate that but we must also give autonomy to the schools to make the best judgment.

On the exemptions, it is important to say that there has actually been a reduction in the number of exemptions at primary school level. There has been an increase in the number of exemptions at post-primary level. We must also remember that there has been a considerable increase in the number of young people accessing special educational needs supports within our schools. We have seen an exponential increase there. We have also seen an enormous increase in the number of students coming from other countries. To take Ukraine alone, we are looking at 15,000 students from Ukraine who are now resident in this country. The face of Ireland has changed quite a bit and so, therefore, have the needs in the schools. It is important that we accommodate children with additional needs within schools. If they need to be accommodated by way of exemption, there is an automatic exemption for those in special classes or special schools. Notwithstanding that, for balance, I will also say that we in the Department are working very hard to ensure that other opportunities, whether with regard to the culture or heritage, are also experienced in schools. We have the creative clusters and the Bringing Live Arts to Students and Teachers, BLAST, programme. All of the emphasis is on the culture of the language. It is a balancing act.