Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party)
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That is still a substantial amount of time within the curriculum but it is reduced.

I wanted to circle around on some of Deputy Farrell's questions on the teaching of the Irish language and the reduction of teaching time for that. I understand the Gaelige Neamhfhoirmiúil and I was a devil for the Gaelige Neamhfhoirmiúil myself.

Are we benchmarking our progress in terms of T2 against international standards? I have a real concern. I worked as an English language teacher and TEFL teacher. I have also been a language learner in several other languages. I am a strong believer in the common European framework for reference, CEFR, for languages and how we benchmark one against the other. I see, however, a kind of a sense of exceptionalism when it comes to the teaching and learning of Irish in our school classrooms. Are we benchmarking the outcomes of our T2 specification against international standards? I ask this because there is certainly an impression out there in the wild that our children are coming out of schools with a level of Irish that is often below that of their French or German, languages which they might only have taken on in first year in school. Can I get some idea of whether that international benchmarking is happening?