Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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183. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the projected funding an organisation (details supplied) will receive for 2017 to develop primary and secondary school textbooks and resources in Irish. [17594/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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An Chomhairle um Oideachas Gaeltachta agus Gaelscolaíochta (COGG) was established to undertake the functions set out in Section 31 of the Education Act 1998. Those functions are:-

(i) to plan and co-ordinate the provision of textbooks and aids to learning and teaching through Irish,

(ii) to advise the Minister on policies relating to the provision and promotion of education through the medium of Irish in recognised schools generally and in schools located in a Gaeltacht area,

(iii) to provide support services to those schools through the medium of Irish, and

(iv) to conduct research into any or all matters to which this paragraph applies,

and

(v) to plan and co-ordinate the provision of textbooks and aids to the learning and teaching of Irish and to conduct research into and to advise the Minister on strategies which have as their objective the enhancement of the effectiveness in the teaching of Irish in recognised schools and centres for education.

For the delivery of its core functions COGG received an allocation of €1.7 million for 2017. It is not possible to provide a precise breakdown at this stage of the amount that will be spent on developing primary and secondary school textbooks and resources in Irish. In 2016 COGG’s outturn was €1.4m of which €340,000 was spent on learning and teaching resources for Primary and Post-Primary schools. COGG expects to spend somewhat more in 2017 due to Junior Cycle developments and implementation of the new policy on Gaeltacht Education.

COGG will additionally receive funding in 2017 of some €340k for their role in implementation of the policy on Gaeltacht Education.