Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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214. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans, if any, to roll out greater numbers of Irish-language courses in third-level institutions. [26573/24]

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are autonomous within the meaning of the Universities Act 1997, Technological Universities Act 2018, and Institutes of Technology Acts 1992 -2006. Under this legislation HEIs are academically independent and entitled to regulate their own academic affairs and administrative processes including the number and type of programmes offered. As such, neither I nor my Department have any role in the matter of programme creation or delivery. It is expected that HEIs periodically review and update their provision offering.

My Department allocates recurrent funding to the Higher Education Authority (HEA), which in turn disburses this funding as a block grant to designated HEIs. The allocation of this funding, including any expenditure on Irish-language education initiatives, is managed by the individual HEIs.

My Department is committed to implementing the Official Languages Act and providing Irish-language services. The Official Languages (Amendment) Bill 2019 is crucial to Ireland and the life of the language in the country. Under Object 8 (b) of the HEA Act 2022, the HEA sponsors the Conradh na Gaeilge initiative, ‘Gníomhaí Gaeilge’, in collaboration with the Union of Students in Ireland. This initiative is an Irish language mentoring programme open to all students. Its objectives include building on the development of Irish Language Societies and Officers, developing ‘Gníomhaí Gaeilge’ Awards at third level, awarding a ‘Gníomhaí Gaeilge’ Certificate for active students, and establishing a training, personal development, and mentoring scheme for ‘Gníomhaí Gaeilge’.