Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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251. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to improve access to Irish Sign Language courses for students with hearing disabilities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34788/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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A new short course in Irish Sign Language (ISL) was developed by the Post-Primary Languages Initiative in the context of the new Framework for Junior Cycle. The course is currently being piloted in the Mid-West School for the Hearing Impaired in Limerick. Following this, the course will be ready to be implemented by schools opting to introduce ISL.

Short courses were introduced into the Junior Cycle curriculum as options for schools to develop and implement, according to the context of the individual school and the needs and interests of their students. The courses provide schools with greater flexibility in the delivery of their junior cycle programmes.

My Department will monitor the demand for and take-up of this course in Junior Cycle. There are no plans at present to expand ISL into the Leaving Certificate Established programme. However, there are four modules on Sign Language available as part of the Leaving Certificate Applied Programme. The syllabus is available at .