Conor Lenihan (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy for giving me the opportunity to outline to the House my Department's position regarding the mainstreaming of the English language tuition service for adult refugees which has to date been provided by Integrate Ireland Language and Training Ltd.

IILT is a non-profit campus company of Trinity College Dublin which was established in 2001 to co-ordinate language training for adult refugees with the support of the Department of Education and Science. Since then IILT has provided direct English language tuition to adult refugees, primarily in the greater Dublin area and increasingly in recent years in a number of outreach centres around the country. At any one time it had approximately 450 students receiving English language tuition. IILT in the past also provided some in-service seminars to language support teachers in schools, although the company ceased providing such seminars in mid-2007. The Department is currently exploring other options to provide in-service for English language support teachers in primary and post-primary schools.

IILT approached the Department of Education and Science earlier this year with a proposal to withdraw from direct tuition, except for provision for programme refugees, and requested that the Department mainstream direct tuition within the education system. I assure the Deputy that this was an approach by IILT itself, not a move initiated by the Department. This is a request the Department is happy to agree to at this time as it accords with the overall approach to provision of services to migrants as set out in Migration Nation, a statement on integration strategy and diversity management recently launched by me, as Minister of State with responsibility for integration.

Following the withdrawal of IILT from direct provision and from in-service seminars, the Department has decided to redirect the funding for these activities to other providers. The Irish Vocational Education Association has confirmed that it is happy to co-operate and collaborate with the Department of Education and Science in delivery of necessary English language services. The VEC sector has already developed best practice in ESOL provision. The sector is providing English language services for those whose first language is not English. At present services are provided to over 12,000 people annually, which makes a mockery of claims made in some quarters that the VEC system is not capable of carrying out this task.

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