Ms Anne O'Mahony:

To add to what Ms Naughton has said, I want to mention that the post-primary languages initiative is also developing some short courses in its target languages. For example, it is looking at Japanese and Russian. I wanted to put that in the mix as well.

Deputy Jim Daly said he was against compulsory Irish. I would suggest he is perhaps a bit of an outlier in the Irish language movement. This is something that has been under consideration in the sense that it was mentioned in the programme for Government. As Mr. Caffrey mentioned, there is the new 40% oral Irish examination in the leaving certificate and the NCCA will be reviewing its impact in schools next year.