Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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Question 483: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the plans to continue, expand and mainstream the modern languages initiative that is being piloted in some areas of the country; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26385/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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At the request of my Department, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, NCCA, has carried out a feasibility study on the teaching of modern languages in the primary curriculum. The report, completed last year, recommended that any decision on the place of modern languages in the primary curriculum should be deferred until the revised primary curriculum has been implemented in full. This will be 2007 at the earliest. Until then, the initiative will continue with support provided by a team of language specialists and funded by my Department. Also, the NCCA is engaging in additional research and some pilot projects with initiative schools to further inform its advice when the primary curriculum has been fully implemented.

My Department is working closely with language experts from the Council of Europe to facilitate the analysis of language practice at primary and post-primary level, with a view to the formulation of an integrated language policy. This analysis will include Irish as well as the development of criteria for decision-making on issues such as the inclusion of additional languages in the curriculum. This will complement ongoing work by the NCCA, which is engaged in reviewing languages in the post-primary curriculum and the feasibility of expanding provision at primary level.