Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his kind words. I believe there is strong value in supporting the provision of services in the Irish language to children at an early age because, as the Deputy has said, they are able to pick up languages much more quickly at that age. Preschools and crèches can play a really important role in promoting Irish as a living language.

I note that early learning and care services are private businesses and they determine the medium through which they provide their service. My Department provides funding to providers through various schemes to subsidise early learning and childcare costs and for various quality initiatives. We are particularly keen to support providers who wish to operate through Irish.

There are currently 247 childcare services that identify as naíonraí with Pobal and my Department. Of these, 237 provide the ECCE scheme. For the 2019-20 programme year, my Department provided these services with €25 million worth of supports.

Tusla, the early years regulator, and the Better Start quality development service offer services to the sector through Irish and continue their efforts to improve the Irish language service. My Department also ensures that resources are made available through Irish.

Collaboration between officials in my Department and in the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht has resulted in a set of actions under the five-year Action Plan for the Irish Language 2018-2022. These actions are in support of the overarching 20-year strategy for the Irish language and are designed to affirm the importance of early learning and care in encouraging the development and revitalisation of the Irish language.

First 5, the whole-of-government strategy for children and families contains two actions specifically aimed at supporting the development of the Irish language within the early learning and care sector. These involve ensuring that children in Gaeltacht areas have access to early learning services through Irish and developing mechanisms to provide Irish language supports to services where there are high proportions of children learning through the medium of Irish.

My Department remains committed to supporting growth in the number of Irish language early years services.

See this speech in context