Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I accept that there are a large number of naíonraí but a naíonra is a preschool whereas a naíolann is a crèche. There is a world of difference between the two. Getting to children at the crèche stage presents great advantages as against getting to them at the ECCE stage. For one, the service has them all day. There are naíolanna in the country operating through Irish. I am sure the Minister would agree that there is a privatisation drive in this country and an idea that everything should be market driven. The first sentence of his answer was that these are private businesses which we fund. Of course, he who pays the piper calls the tune. Is there an overarching positive policy in the Minister's Department which aims to promote to concept of diversity of choice of language between the two official languages or a mixture of both? Is there a policy to introduce a small amount of Irish in English-speaking crèches? The Minister is correct that this was part of the 20-year strategy. Is there a big policy which the Department's money could be used to implement?

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