Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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Gabhaim buíochas don Seanadóir Ó Broin os rud é gur ardaigh sé an ábhar tábhachtach seo ag tús an tSeanaid. Is ábhar an-thábhactach é agus ceann a bhfuil i bhfad níos tábhtachtaí anois i gcomhthéacs an Bhreatimeacht.

This debate gives me an opportunity to outline some of the measures that the Government has taken and is taking to support the supply of foreign language teachers, which is a really critical issue, as the Senator rightly identified, and to provide an update on the implementation of the language strategy.

In recent years everyone in the education sector has reported difficulties being experienced by some schools in recruiting post-primary teachers in certain subject areas, including teachers of foreign languages. The Senator might be aware that I wrote a policy document on this very issue on behalf of our party a number of years ago. I am glad that he shares my own concerns about this issue.

As far as I know, the second language that was spoken on the first day of the Dáil was not English but French, when George Gavan Duffy read out the Declaration of Independence. English was spoken after that.

In response to these issues, there was, as the Senator has mentioned, a teacher supply action plan published by the Department that contained a range of actions to address teacher supply and which focused on four policy areas, including higher education. A number of those measures were aimed at supporting the supply of teachers of foreign languages.

As the Senator will undoubtedly know, the Higher Education Authority, HEA, engaged with the higher education institutions to encourage the development of undergraduate initial teacher training programmes in targeted subjects, including foreign languages. This has resulted in new programmes, but obviously it takes time to feed into the system. Nonetheless, it is important to get the foundations right. Since 2019, students can select an undergraduate programme to become a foreign language teacher. This reduces costs they would incur by going on to do a masters in education. These programmes are offered in DCU, UCC, with combinations including Irish, and Limerick, where two foreign languages can be taken on the programme. There were 100 places available on these programmes in 2020, which represents significant additional capacity for foreign language teacher education in the system over the past two years.

It is worth noting that the number of students due to graduate in foreign languages in 2020 from what I referred to as the traditional professional masters in education has also significantly increased. Based on information from our higher education institutions, the graduates on these programmes have increased the potential teacher registrations of foreign languages by more than 130 this year compared with 70 last year. That is starting to make a bit of progress. Obviously we have to make sure that all of these people join and stay in our education system when they get the qualifications.

In addition, the Higher Education Authority issued a call for proposals to upskill existing teachers to meet the Teaching Council's subject criteria in targeted subjects, including Spanish, as mentioned by the Senator. The programmes are two years in duration, open to already registered post-primary teachers, and they will not have to pay fees. It is intended that the details of these programmes will be announced in the coming weeks, and I am delighted that this is happening.

With regard to Languages Connect, which is Ireland's strategy for foreign languages in education and which was published in November 2018, I am pleased to say that significant work has taken place at increasing and diversifying the range of foreign languages taught. A key element of this work has been the development of four new leaving certificate curricular language specifications, which have been rolled out in 15 schools in September of this year, including Mandarin, Chinese, Lithuanian, Polish and Portuguese.

The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, NCCA, has also published the national primary curriculum framework for public consultation, which recommends the reintroduction of foreign languages in senior classes at primary level. That issue is a particular personal priority for the Taoiseach. I look forward to seeing that rolled out and giving our kids the skills that, as the Senator rightly points out, they need. It is not just a question of wanting it at this stage.

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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De rien.

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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We are bringing it back.

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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New Government.

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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Gracias.

As I have said in the Dáil, we have a national hang-up about languages in this country. Quite frankly, we will have to get over it. I do not know what the reason is. I do not know whether it is because of the historical connotations of the Irish language of poverty. We have our own national language here that, let us be honest, very few speak and that then leads to difficulties.

The challenges are considerable. When I go to European meetings, I am surprised at the amount of English that is not spoken. People are using English but many countries are using their own languages. In fact, I spoke Irish at the General Affairs Council last week. I was pleased to do so. The French certainly do not use English at European meetings and they would probably prefer if we were speaking French to them as well.

We must upskill. The Government is absolutely committed to this. I am bringing forward a policy on recruitment into the European institutions where our biggest problem is the lack of languages. It is not only so that we can all say "Bonjour", "Danke", or whatever. We need a deep level of understanding and a high level of language capability among our graduates if we want to have people working in the European institutions.

We must change the national attitude around this. At our disposal on every phone and television, we have Netflix where all of these television programmes are available in all sorts of languages. Our young people, particularly, have a considerable opportunity now if they decide that languages are the thing for them. When I was doing the leaving certificate, I went around in my father's car with a tape listening to conversations to practise for the oral examination. Now one can watch every programme. We need to grasp these opportunities to become fluent in other languages and go out there to other countries, particularly to the European Union, and be confident about it. We need to put our case there, as our forefathers and foremothers in the Dáil and Seanad did, for instance, in 1919, when, as I stated, George Gavan Duffy read the Declaration of Independence in French to speak that language of diplomacy.

I thank the Senator for raising the issue. It is a priority for the Government. I will certainly bring the points that the Senator raises to the attention of the Minister for Education and Skills, who is dealing with Covid-related matters in schools this morning. The Minister is supporting Covid teams that will be giving help to schools in the next few weeks. That is why Deputy Foley is not here and she asked me to convey her apologies to the House.