John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the grants or funding made available to primary or post primary schools for the provision of foreign language skills; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55212/12]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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The Foreign Language Assistant scheme has its origins in Cultural Agreements between Ireland and the countries of France, Germany, Spain, Austria and Italy. Graduates or under-graduates from these countries exchange with their Irish counterparts and are placed in second level schools for an eight month period (October to May).

The purpose of the exchange is two-fold. Firstly, it gives the assistants intending to proceed to a teaching career an opportunity to perfect their knowledge of the language and culture of the host country; the second objective is to improve the Irish students' knowledge and understanding of the foreign language and culture.

As part of the Budget 2012 decisions, the Modern Languages in Primary Schools Initiative (MLPSI) ceased at the end of the 2011/12 school year.

The MLPSI was a pilot scheme involving approximately 550 primary schools and had been operating since 1998. There were approximately 270 schools employing part-time tutors to deliver language tuition. There were a number of tutors employed in more than one school and the number of tutors would be less than 270. The tutors were paid by school Boards of Management from grants issued by my Department. The grant was paid where the school could not teach the modern languages from within the existing staff.