Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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530. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if consideration will be given to extending the time required to be spent in the Gaeltacht improving language skills, as part of teacher training; and if the financial support scheme could be re-introduced for such an important component of the training programme. [9352/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Under the Teaching Council Act, 2001, the Teaching Council is the body with statutory regulatory authority to review and accredit initial teacher education programmes. As such, it is the Teaching Council, and not the Minister, which sets out the programme criteria. With regard to implementation, the Council established a Gaeltacht Placement Working Group and published a report in May 2012 which, among other things, provided for the placement duration to be extended to two blocks of two weeks.

The decision to abolish the Gaeltacht Placement grants, from September 2012 was not taken lightly, and has to be viewed in the context of the prevailing requirement to reduce costs and achieve efficiencies where possible. Priority was given to protecting resources for front line education services as far as possible in the coming years, which is especially challenging with rising numbers of school-going children.

For the reasons outlined above, I am not in a position to reinstate funding to this area.