Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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105. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the way he proposes to promote the use of the Irish language in further and higher education institutions. [12710/22]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Department for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science is committed to the implementation of the Official Languages Act and provision of Irish-language services, and the Bille na dTeangacha Oifigiúla (Leasú) is of high importance to Ireland and the life of the language in this country. It will ensure that Irish speakers can interact with the Government and access public services through a high standard of Irish. Further information on this bill can be found in the following link www.gov.ie/en/press-release/a8eef-official-languages-bill-amendment-2019-before-the-dail/.

The Department will be represented on a new Steering Group being established by the Department of Education to support the development of a Policy on Irish-medium education outside of the Gaeltacht. The Department is also open to engaging directly with the Department of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Sport, Gaeltacht and the Media with regard to the supply of graduates with a competency in Irish.

There is already a broad range of courses available in Irish in higher education institutions that will meet future demand.

The objective of the Advanced Irish Language Skills Initiative, funded by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, is to ensure the availability of qualified persons with Irish language skills to meet recruitment needs in Ireland and the EU. Under this scheme the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht provides funding for a range of specialised third level Irish language courses in areas such as translation, interpretation and law. Further information on this Initiative can be found in the following link www.gov.ie/en/publication/7c05c-third-level-education/.

The North-South Research Programme, which I announced last week with An Taoiseach,  is a collaborative scheme funded through the Government’s Shared Island Fund with sixty-two collaborative research projects between academics and institutions in Ireland and in Northern Ireland awarded funding under the first funding call to a total value of €37million. Under this programme, the research  project ‘CARTLANN' will focus on activism, language and media: using the archival records of Conradh na Gaeilge to track the uneven development of Irish language policy on both sides of the border.

The Department distributes recurrent funding to the Higher Education Authority (HEA) for disbursement directly to the HEA's designated higher education institutions. The HEA distributes this funding as a block grant to the institutions. As autonomous bodies, payment of this funding, including any expenditure on Irish-language education initiatives, falls to the individual institution.