Dr. Alex Dowdall:

I thank the Senator for his observations and question. When it comes to education at primary and second level, that is a matter for our colleagues in the Department of Education and Youth. However, we work closely with them. As we previously mentioned, the Department is developing two policies which are particularly important for the issues raised by committee members. First is the policy for Irish-medium education outside of the Gaeltacht. This is going to set out the Department of Education and Youth's vision in relation to Irish-medium education and identifies a number of actions we will aim to support to grow the sector. There has been a comprehensive public consultation as well as cross-government consultation, and we have been involved in that and will have actions in the ultimate plan when it is agreed. Unfortunately, a final version of it has not yet been agreed, so I cannot provide much more detail than that. The other policy which is worth mentioning and goes alongside that is the action plan on the teaching of Irish in English-medium schools. Similarly, there has been a large consultation both public and across government, which we have been involved with. We will have a number of actions.

Our interests in those action plans are around the broader issue of transitions, which I think is what the Senator is approaching: supporting students coming from primary to second level and into tertiary education to be able to maintain a level of Irish-language education. That will be the focus of our actions in those plans. That in turn is linked to a much wider policy focus within our Department on transitions. Another key policy or priority for our Department is to look at improving information and pathways as students move from second level education into tertiary level. That is another example of how we are trying to embed our approach to the Irish language into the broader policy of our Department.