Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)

The Deputy is right that the current requirement for the mandatory tréimhsí foghlama sa Ghaeltacht, the Gaeltacht learning periods for primary initial teacher education programmes, is the two-week placement. This is outlined in the Teaching Council's policy, entitled "Céim: Standards for Initial Teacher Education". The funding was provided for that in budget 2020. The grant rate is set at about €845 per placement and the cost is about €2.3 million. That is not something that has always been in place and the fund was not available previously but it has now been provided for.

Any provision of funding for post-primary teachers would have to be negotiated through the budget. I fully take on board the Deputy's point. If we want young people to have that immersive experience, their teachers need to get the best training possible at every level, not just at primary level. We must make sure that our post-primary teachers have that access as well. It will have to be considered in an overall budgetary context.

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