Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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183. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to reinstate the island allowance for teachers to encourage suitably qualified persons to take such positions on the islands in view of the extra cost of living on the islands; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49382/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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Following a review of the staffing allocation for Small Primary Schools, one of the measures announced in Budget 2017 provides for one teacher island schools. Where the school is the only primary school on an island, the school will be able to appoint a second teacher to the school. This will be effective from September 2017 and will be set out in the staffing schedule circular for the 2017/18 school year which will be available on my Department's website in the coming weeks.

The Department’s Policy on Gaeltacht Education 2017-2022, which was launched on 28 October 2016, aims to ensure the availability of a high quality and relevant Irish-medium educational experience in Gaeltacht schools and in this way to support the use of Irish as the main language of families and of Gaeltacht communities. Under the terms of the Policy, additional teaching and/or other resources, including dedicated continuing professional development (CPD), will be made available to schools whose applications to participate in the Gaeltacht Schools’ recognition process are approved.  It is envisaged that the allocation of resources will be on a staged incremental basis over a five-year period in accordance with the language criteria set out in the Policy on Gaeltacht Education 2017-2022. A dedicated Gaeltacht Education Unit has been established within the Department to oversee and support the implementation of the Policy. Funding of €2.5m has been provided for in Budget 2017 and Budget 2018 to allow for the commencement of the phased Implementation of the policy.