Ms Arlene Forster:

I am happy to begin. To pick up on Senator Flynn's point about Gaeilge, the lovely example she shared with us about her young daughter in school also speaks to the point Dr. Sullivan made earlier that in addition to the amount one spends on a language, it is how one uses the time. It is the kinds of experiences that children have in order to have as much exposure as possible to the language and develop a love of the language which, in turn, feeds their motivation and their learning of the language.

In terms of the Traveller history and culture work, as the Senator mentioned, we worked closely with Dr. Hannagh McGinley. To fill the Senator in on what has been happening in more recent times, she will be aware of the research report that was published and that Dr. McGinley very much led the work on. Since then, we have also been working closely with schools and early childhood settings to gather real-life examples in the Irish context of how Traveller history and culture are nurtured and supported within the context of the current curriculum, because there are many opportunities in the current curriculum. The intention behind those examples which we will be publishing is as a practical support for all other teachers and schools to avail of.

A follow-on piece of work which is also connected to the Traveller history and culture report is to review and update the intercultural guidelines. These are almost 20 years old. They were developed in the context of the 1999 primary curriculum and in the context of post-primary curricula at the time. We are in the process of carrying out that review and updating work and it is our intention that that would be completed towards the end of next year. In fact, we had a tender very recently to commission some additional research to support us in that work.

On the point about special educational needs, earlier I made reference to the primary curriculum framework and all of the draft primary specifications which flow from that. We are very clear that the curriculum is for all schools and, therefore, it is all children, including those with special educational needs. One of the practical strategies that we have adopted in respect of our work, on both the framework and the draft specifications, is to work closely with a large network of schools - the schools forum. As part of that forum, there are special schools working with us. In addition to that, there are a number of support structures in place which the Department leads out on and chairs. Within those structures, we work closely with the National Council for Special Education as well. We are very conscious of building in mechanisms to ensure that the next version of the primary curriculum can really support the learning of every child in the country across primary and special schools.

I will pass to my colleagues from the Department to answer in respect of the other questions.