Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)

I understand this question refers to the professional development service for teachers. The policy pursued when teacher support services are funded by my Department is that services are provided through the medium of Irish to teachers in Irish-medium schools. These services do not differentiate between categories of schools, but they do respond to differentiated need. The professional development service provides bilingual versions of its documentation, materials and resources. When the service engages in face-to-face support with teachers and schools, documentation including presentations and handouts are provided through the language medium of the school. The service has a number of personnel with the necessary Irish language skills to support gaelscoileanna. Although the level of resources available has fallen in recent times in accordance with overall budgetary constraints, the service has recently recruited additional personnel, four of whom have the capacity to service gaelscoileanna. The professional development service for teachers does not provide funding to schools.

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