Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Question 42: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs his views on the meeting of the recent Indigenous, Minority and Lesser Used Languages British-Irish Council ministerial meeting in Galway; the issues that were discussed; the future work programme for the group; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37003/06]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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The Ministerial meeting to which the Deputy refers was held in Na Forbacha, Galway on 27 October last and was attended by representatives from Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. As Wales is the lead administration for the Indigenous, Minority and Lesser-Used Languages Group within the British-Irish Council, the meeting was chaired by the Welsh Minister for Culture, Welsh Language and Sport.

As is outlined in the agreed communiqué issued by the Ministers from the member administrations, the meeting considered and approved 3 discussion papers relating to: Language Transmission within the Family; Information and Communications Technology and Indigenous, Minority and Lesser-Used Languages; and Adult Education Provision for the Teaching and Learning of the Indigenous, Minority and Lesser-Used Languages.

As well as continuing to advance work in these three areas in the future, the Group will also focus on two new areas, namely: Planning and Linguistic Considerations; and Research, Data and Language Use Surveys.

I am very encouraged by the work being done on an ongoing basis under the auspices of the Indigenous, Minority and Lesser Used Languages Group of the British-Irish Council and I look forward to a continuing process of information exchange and mutual learning, both at official and Ministerial levels.

The Deputy will also be interested to note that a practitioner's conference on the theme of Language Transmission within the Family was held the day prior to the Ministerial meeting and that this was also considered to be a great success.