John Lyons (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 105: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to scale up the supply of foreign language skills being taught at third level, in particular for emerging market languages; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35703/12]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Students at third level currently have access to a wide range of foreign language courses that can be taken as core subjects or in combination with a range of other disciplines. Information on all language courses, including those relevant to emerging markets, is available on the Qualifax website www.qualifax.ie.

In addition, almost 150 new part time higher education places on foreign language courses have been made available under Springboard 2012.

The issue of the supply of foreign language skills was also addressed in a report published by Forfás and the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs last month. The recommendations in this report, Key Skills for Enterprise to Trade Internationally, will provide a valuable input to considerations around the further development of foreign language provision in third level institutions.