Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 270: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the proportion of marks allocated for spoken Irish in the leaving certificate for Irish at lower level; if she intends to restructure this system with a clean bias towards spoken competency; when she intends to do same; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37318/05]

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 272: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the structure and category allocation of points marking for Irish in the leaving certificate for both lower and higher grade; the educational purpose of Irish in the lower grade; if she has satisfied herself that this purpose is being achieved with specific reference to spoken Irish; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37320/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 270 and 272 together.

Irish is examined at higher, ordinary and foundation levels in the leaving certificate examination. All candidates take an oral examination where the productive skills of the candidate in spoken Irish are tested in an interview format. They also take an aural test where a candidate listens to a recording of native speakers representing the three main dialects and where the candidate's receptive skills regarding spoken Irish are tested.

At each of the three levels, the oral component accounts for 25% of the total marks for the examination. The aural component accounts for 16.6% of the total marks at higher level, 20% of the total marks at ordinary level and 30% of total marks at foundation level. The syllabuses in Irish at all levels are built around the communicative approach to the learning of the language and require that the four language skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing are developed in an integrated way. As to the extent to which the aims of the syllabuses are being achieved by our students, my view is that we need to work towards improvements in area of spoken Irish and that placing more emphasis on oral Irish in the leaving certificate examinations should be considered.

As the Deputy knows, I have already asked the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment to make recommendations to me in this regard as one of their next steps in developing their proposals for senior cycle reform.