Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Interestingly, almost as an aside, there has been a positive announcement today in terms of scholarships being provided for students in DEIS schools. That is a support being provided by Government. It is really positive that opportunities like that are provided to all young people and, in particular, to young people who may have challenges in availing of these opportunities. These DEIS scholarships will help that.

In terms of early years right through to the entire experience of school, as I said earlier, the Department is taking a staged approach. There is a comprehensive policy being worked through in the first instance. We set the policy on Gaeltacht education presently and we are nearing competition of the policy on Irish-medium education outside the Gaeltacht. Finally, we are about to commence the policy framework and action plan to support Irish- and English-medium schools. The Department of children is currently developing a national plan on Irish-language provision for early learning and school-aged childcare. Taken together, these policies and initiatives, including those of other Departments, are about providing a comprehensive policy and commitment for the Irish language from pre-primary education right through to teacher education for all schools. There is a strong body of work being done in this regard. We recognise we are seeing an increase in the number of young people availing of education through Irish. In the past ten years, we have seen an increase of nearly 2,500 students at primary level and an increase of almost 3,000 students at post-primary level. That is not to say, with the work we are completing, that there is not a lot more work required to be done.

We are also providing significant supports as a Department to encourage teachers to make themselves available. We have the B.Oid where we are making provision for 30 places; the máistreacht in the University of Galway; the Gaeltacht recognition scheme; a Gael aonad which has been specifically set up in Oide; upskilling courses in Irish; the Irish language unit in the Department; and, for English-medium schools, we have e-hubs. There are a lot of supports being provided with the overall and singular ambition to improve opportunities and widen access to Irish-medium education.