Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Taoiseach for his reply.

It is incredible, if I heard correctly, that it has been adjudicated by the Government that modern languages should not be part of the primary school curriculum. It was I who, in 1998-99, as Minister for Education, introduced the pilot programme for modern languages to introduce Spanish, French, German and Italian to primary schools. Since then, over 450 schools have participated annually in the cost-effective programme that has made an appreciable impact on primary school-going children enjoying and learning modern European languages. In the context of a country that wants to embrace our membership of the European Union and that wants to broaden horizons, it is incredible that the funding has been taken from that programme, that the programme is being stopped and the funding is being put into an alternative programme to do with general literacy. It is not good enough to shut down some programmes and then be photographed opening up new programmes with the same funding.

In essence, it is extraordinary that a good and worthwhile initiative has been shelved by the Government in the context of the current serious engagement with the European Union in the form of the referendum. Over the past decade thousands of school children have benefited from this programme. I ask the Taoiseach to reconsider that decision and to ensure the continuation of that programme. In the overall scheme of things, it is affordable.

Second, on the Blue Star initiative and www.eumatters.ie, it is difficult to comprehend how a specific website set up to inform the public generally about European Union matters, which we initiated when I was in the Department for Foreign Affairs because of a sense a number of years ago after the Lisbon referendum that the public needed to be informed more about Europe generally, and which was part of a wider information programme to provide information to the public on Europe, was collapsed, as the Taoiseach seemed to state in his reply, because of the EU foreign policy unit in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade being transferred to the Department of the Taoiseach. In the lead-up to a referendum campaign, this is a retrograde step.

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