Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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399. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the way the capacity of professional and administrative personnel within his Department including inspectors, psychologists, speech and language therapists, occupational therapists and staff in school support services to deliver services through Irish in Gaeltacht schools has been increased in 2017 and to date 2018 as outlined in the Policy on Gaeltacht Education 2017-2022; the number of additional staff in each category that have been tasked to deliver services through Irish; and the costs which have been incurred from the promotion of such increased capacity. [25119/18]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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In 2017, the Gaeltacht Education Unit was established in my Department to oversee and support the implementation of the Policy on Gaeltacht Education 2017-2022. This Unit is staffed by a four-member team, all of whom can deliver a service through Irish. A team of 7 Inspectors, who have also been currently assigned to the Unit on the part-time basis, are providing advisory support through Irish to schools participating in the Gaeltacht School Recognition Scheme.

To support the implementation of the Policy, provision has also been made for 2 additional Education Officer posts in An Chomhairle um Oideachas Gaeltachta & Gaelscolaíochta (COGG) who are delivering CPD through the medium of Irish to schools participating in the Gaeltacht School Recognition Scheme.

Primary and post-primary schools participating in the Gaeltacht School Recognition Scheme can also access additional part-time language support hours equivalent to 30 whole time equivalent (WTE) primary teachers and 10 WTE post-primary teachers from September 2018. Also, in September 2018, an additional teacher is being allocated to each of 2 post-primary schools under Forás, which is a pilot Irish-language development programme aimed at supporting certain junior-cycle students in their transition to Irish-medium education.

To work towards increasing the number of primary and post-primary teachers who can provide high quality Irish-medium education and enhancing existing capacity, a number of other initiatives have also been commenced to support the implementation of the Gaeltacht Policy. To date, these include provision for two additional teaching posts on the Professional Masters in Education at NUIG.

The implementation of the pre-pilot phase of an e-hub project is also at an advanced stage. The purpose of the e-Hub pilot project is to connect a number of small Irish-medium schools or Irish-medium units in Gaeltacht areas so as to extend the range of curricular choices in an online environment through the medium of Irish available to post-primary students, particularly at senior cycle, in these schools. An invitation to apply for two part-time e-Teacher posts of Leaving Certificate Higher-Level Physics to participate in this e-Hub Pilot Project has recently issued to Gaeltacht and all-Irish post-primary schools.

In budget 2018, the Government doubled the investment being made in Gaeltacht education. A budgetary allocation of €2.3m was provided for the implementation of the Policy on Gaeltacht Education in 2018.

To support the provision of a service through Irish by the Department of Education and Skills an Irish Information Line has been put in place. The number of staff assigned to answering the dedicated Irish Information Line has increased by 3 since April 2017.

The National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) currently employ 24 educational psychologists that are proficient in the Irish language. At the Schools Inspectorate Division at primary level there are 11 inspectors who have schools in Gaeltacht areas as part of their district. Inspectors at primary level have sufficient proficiency to evaluate the teaching and learning of Irish in primary schools. At post-primary level, the inspectors are in the main specialists in subject areas and post-primary inspectors also provides services to schools that teach the curriculum through Irish including Gaeltacht schools.

In both the Junior Cycle for Teachers support service (JCT) and the Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST) there has been an increase of 4 additional advisors in each of these two support services since January 2017 who have been tasked to deliver services through Irish.

The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) has 22 Visiting Teachers, 6 advisors, 1 Speech and Language Therapist, 1 Occupational Therapist, 2 Special Education Needs Organisers and 1 administrative staff member who specifically deliver services in Irish when required. The NCSE currently have a number of additional teaching staff seconded to them who are mainly primary school teachers who are proficient in Irish. This cohort of staff joined the NCSE in March 2017 as part of the transition of National Behaviour Support Service (NBSS) and Special Education Support Service (SESS) services to the NCSE.

Questions relating to the provision of speech and language therapy through the HSE primary care service should be directed to the Minister for Health.