Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I thank the Senator for his contribution and highlighting this issue which is close to my heart. As he pointed out, we need to prioritise our use of limited resources and make difficult decisions that will have problematic outcomes for those who have been employed as teachers under this initiative. There was a certain degree of inequity in provision, in that we were only able to roll out the opportunity to 500 of the 3,200 primary schools. We also needed to take into consideration the strong opinion expressed by the NCCA to the effect that modern languages should not be part of the primary school curriculum as additional and separate subjects. Under the programme for Government, we are strongly determined to eliminate illiteracy and innumeracy at primary, post-primary and further education levels. There is no better time to do this than early in a young person's education. The resources saved through the cessation of this process will be targeted at dealing with this issue. It will be money well spent and we will see positive outcomes in the years to come.