Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

My Department estimates that there are in the region of 28,000 students in our schools whose first language is not English or Irish. In order to meet their language needs, additional support is given to their schools which can take the form of financial assistance, additional teaching posts or portions of posts.

The level of extra financial or teaching support provided to any school is determined by the numbers of eligible non-English speaking students enrolled. The additional language support to an individual pupil is generally given for a period of two years.

Schools with between three and 13 eligible pupils receive grant assistance towards the cost of employing part-time teachers. Schools with three to eight pupils receive a grant of over €6,300 while schools with between ten and 13 such pupils receive over €9,500. Some €4 million is being provided for such grants in 2007.

Schools with 14 or more such pupils are entitled to one or more language support teachers, the number of which has increased dramatically in recent years. There are now approximately 1,250 language support teachers in our schools. More than 400 of these teachers have been allocated in the current school year alone. As I announced last November, 200 extra posts were approved by the Government for 2007, bringing to 1,450 the number of language teachers that will be working in our schools this year. This compares with just 262 posts in the 2001-02 school year.

In line with the Government's commitments under the Towards 2016 partnership agreement, a further 350 language support teachers will be provided between 2008 and 2009. In allocating additional teachers, I will address, in particular, the position of those schools catering for significant numbers of such children.

As the Deputy will be aware, a comprehensive strategy is currently being finalised which will ensure that the extra investment in this area is being used to the best effect, and that it is underpinned by the right support and training for teachers.

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