Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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688. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the estimated cost of rolling out a programme here equivalent to Líofa which is a government sponsored Irish language programme operating in Northern Ireland. [19206/17]

Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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The Líofa initiative, which is a government sponsored Irish language programme operating in Northern Ireland, was launched in September 2011 with the objective of having 1,000 people commit to improving and using their Irish. I understand that an examination of the potential development of a similar initiative in this jurisdiction, in conjunction with Údarás na Gaeltachta and other relevant Irish language organisations, was undertaken by Foras na Gaeilge in 2013. However, due to the more robust infrastructure south of the border, including educational support and the long-standing existence of organisations to promote the Irish language, the circumstances surrounding the potential introduction of such a programme in the South would be quite different to those prevailing in the North.

In this context, no estimate has been compiled of the costs associated with the roll-out of such a programme in this jurisdiction.