Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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145. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her plans for improving foreign language education at primary and secondary level to address the deficit of foreign language skills among the population. [33958/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I am committed to further developing our provision for languages in education. The priority at primary level is to provide high-quality language learning in our two languages, Irish and English. A new Integrated Primary Languages Curriculum, incorporating Irish and English, is being developed by the NCCA. The first phase will be introduced from Junior Infants to 2nd classes from September 2016. The curriculum aims to ensure that students acquire transferrable language skills which will assist them in learning Irish and English and additional languages at second level.

Under the Action Plan for Jobs 2015, my Department is developing a new Foreign Languages in Education Strategy focussing on post-primary, further and higher education. Almost 80 submissions were received as part of a consultation process and two major consultation events were held. The new strategy will set out clear actions to further improve the quality and delivery of our provision for foreign languages.