John Connolly (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

Tá rud amháin ann nár luaigh muid ar bith. Bhí mé as an gcruinniú ar feadh píosa but I am not sure if anyone raised the issue of the Irish language and opportunities for students who wish to pursue third level education through that language. We had a very interesting meeting yesterday with Roinn na Gaeltachta in the comhchoiste Gaeilge. We know that 20% of the public sector workforce must have a level of Irish such that they can provide a service to the public through Irish by 2030.

We are currently at approximately 4%. There must be somewhere in the third level sector that has to play a part to facilitate the needs of meeting that target of 20%. The Minister may be familiar with this because I think that the University of Maynooth has some role to play in the European languages framework, TEG, through which the levels are assessed in Irish. Anybody who is participating in a course to meet that requirement should spend some time in the Gaeltacht. A person cannot be adequately prepared to facilitate public services through Irish without having lived in the Gaeltacht and sampled life there for some time. I ask that the University of Maynooth look at that.

The last thing I want to mention is the further education sector, which I have discussed with the Minister previously. There is movement on the new college in Galway, which is very welcome. I would not be doing them justice, though, if I did not reflect that they have expressed to me some frustration in getting through the financial process to allow them to proceed to the design stage of the project. I am not sure if that is the responsibility of the Minister's Department or of the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation. This highlights how we are placing more priority on the price of projects than the value and I think we need to look at that.