Ms Gráinne Morrissey:

As Ms Naughton said, I will focus on the provision of languages required by enterprise. A wide range of languages are available across the higher education sector. There is no indication that capacity constraints would hinder us in increasing provision if demand were to increase. We can also develop targeted responses to particular enterprise and foreign language skills needs through initiatives such as Springboard. If we increase provision in the absence of increased demand, we will not address any skills gap. We provided almost 130 places on foreign language courses under Springboard in 2012. They were to be provided through seven programmes, but three of the programmes were not ultimately offered because there was insufficient demand for them from students.

Deputy Jim Daly also asked about the number of people studying languages at third level. We know that the number studying a foreign language as a single subject increased by approximately 13% between 2007 and 2010. The HEA's data returns do not capture those students who study languages as part of a degree in which it is not the main subject. The HEA is undertaking research to address this by trying to quantify the full extent of language provision across the higher education sector. Preliminary data from this exercise indicate that approximately 9,000 students are studying a foreign language as a core subject or module as part of their degrees. The increasing modularisation of higher education programmes will provide more opportunities for students to take languages as part of other degrees.