Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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301. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the details of the support provided to Foras na Gaeilge to assist with the ongoing Focloir.ie project; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10973/22]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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Lexicography is specifically mentioned as a pillar of the 20-Year Strategy for the Irish Language 2010-2030. The English-Irish online dictionary, foclóir.ie, has over 2.5 million users in Ireland and worldwide annually. The hard-copy Concise English-Irish Dictionary, first published in the autumn of 2020 has already sold over 8,000 copies in the first year and a second edition was printed at the end of 2021.

The Board of Foras na Gaeilge has approved a business plan for a new lexicography project which will cost €2.5m over a 5 year period and will produce two online dictionaries : Irish-Irish and Irish-English.

Based on the priority provided to the lexicography  pillar of the 20 Year Strategy and the success of the new English-Irish Dictionary, I recently approved an allocation of €365,000 from my Department's own resources towards this project for 2022.  I understand that the Department of Education will also be making a further allocation of €50,000 per annum towards the project and that the remainder of the cost will come from Foras na Gaeilge’s baseline budget.

These new dictionaries, as well as implementing the 20-Year Strategy goals, will place the Irish language on a par with other European languages as regards lexicography provision.

Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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302. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if Foras na Gaeilge which operates on a North-South funding mechanism will be impacted by the recent collapse of the Northern Executive; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10974/22]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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Foras na Gaeilge is one of the agencies of the North South Language Body (NSLB), the other being the Ulster-Scots Agency.

The NSLB's existing agreed baseline budget in respect of 2022 is based on the full uplift that had been agreed by the body's sponsor-Departments in both jurisdictions for the year 2021. This equates to a total of €12,387,239in 2022.

In addition to the existing agreed baseline budget allocation, further funding of €0.7m has been allocated by my Department to the NSLB for the full 2022 calendar year. However, as the financial year in the northern jurisdiction runs from April to March, officials of my Department are currently engaging with their counterparts in the Department for Communities in Northern Ireland in order to agree the total increase in the body's budget for 2022.  While this approval process is at an advanced stage at official level, a decision on a response to the southern Government's €0.7m offer is not expected until the Executive is re-established in Norther Ireland.