Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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Question 207: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his policy on retaining Irish as a compulsory subject at leaving certificate level; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11012/12]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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This Government is committed to supporting the overall thrust of 20 Year Strategy for the Irish Language 2010-2030, and to the delivery of the goals and targets proposed. As part of this, a thorough reform of the Irish curriculum and the way Irish is taught at primary and second level will be undertaken. The priority is to take steps to improve the quality and effectiveness of the teaching of Irish. Only when these steps have been implemented, the question of whether Irish should be optional at Leaving Certificate will be considered.

A revised Leaving Certificate curriculum in Irish began in all schools in September 2010 for first examination in 2012. The revised programme provides for an increase in the proportion of marks available for oral assessment to 40%, and is aimed at promoting a significant shift in emphasis towards Irish as a spoken language, where students can communicate and interact in a spontaneous way, and where Irish is spoken every day in schools. The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment has been asked to review this syllabus in the light of the experiences of students in the first examination.

Reviews of Irish will also be undertaken at other levels of the system in the context of the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategy 2011-2020.