Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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597. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of restoring grants for student teachers' attendance at mandatory Gaeltacht courses. [15267/20]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The Teaching Council is responsible for setting the standards for Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes through the review and accreditation of all ITE programmes.

The Gaeltacht placement is a mandatory component of primary initial teacher education programmes, in accordance with the Teaching Council’s Criteria and Guidelines for Programme Providers of Initial Teacher Education.

The duration of the placement is a four week period broken into two separate blocks of two weeks.

The restoration of the Gaeltacht grant for students in State-funded primary initial teacher education (ITE) programmes with effect from the academic year 2020/21 was announced in Budget 2020. The estimated full year annual cost of restoring the grant is €1.8 million.