Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
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782. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if he will ensure that in any arrangement made with the Executive in the north regarding the funding of Foras na Gaeilge that the core funding of the community groups and the head organisations will be able to be funded by any additional money provided by either Government, and that any new funding from one Government will not be limited to new projects only. [11187/25]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Budgets for North-South Implementation Bodies, including the North-South Language Body, are approved by the North-South Ministerial Council (NSMC).

The budgets are submitted to the NSMC once the sponsor departments and finance departments, north and south, have confirmed their own budgets and agreed their allocation for the implementation bodies, in line with agreed funding ratios.

The North-South Language Body, comprising Foras na Gaeilge and the Ulster-Scots Agency, is co-funded by my Department on behalf of the Government of Ireland, and by the Department for Communities on behalf of the Northern Ireland Executive.

The Government of Ireland provides 75% of the Foras na Gaeilge budget annually, with the remaining 25% coming from the Northern Ireland Executive, in accordance with the funding ratios agreed when the North-South Language Body was established.

The overall budget of Foras na Gaeilge is approved by the North South Ministerial Council, of which I am a member. However, it is the Board of Foras na Gaeilge itself that decides on the individual programmes and schemes to be funded within the approved overall budget.

Therefore, I, as Minister, cannot give unilateral direction on the allocation of funding to individual programmes or schemes within the jointly agreed budget.

In that regard, it should be noted that the financial procedures and arrangements for provision of funding for North South bodies are being reviewed but that any changes will be subject to agreement by both the sponsor departments and the finance departments in each jurisdiction before being brought to NSMC for approval.

The Irish Government has provided an increase in the 2025 budget to be directed towards North-South Language Body. However, the Northern Ireland Executive's budget year begins in April and as such, the Department for Communities has not yet confirmed its budget for this year.

Once the 2025 budget has been confirmed and agreed by the sponsoring Departments, North and South, it will be presented to the NSMC for approval.

In the meantime, it is worth noting that the overall level of funding for the Irish language and the Gaeltacht has more than doubled in the past decade, with the majority of this increase happening over the past 5 years.

While Foras na Gaeilge has not been able to benefit from this, the Department has initiated a variety of schemes and programmes, over the past number of years, to ensure the funding reaches the organisations working on the ground with Irish language and Gaeltacht communities across the country. A significant amount of this funding is already being provided to the Irish language lead organisations, who are also part-funded by Foras na Gaeilge.

For example, the Department’s own funding for Irish language programmes outside the Gaeltacht has more than doubled in the past 5 years, from €4.65m in 2020 to €10.7m in 2025. A significant amount of this funding is being provided to the Irish language lead organisations.

In the past 2 years alone, the portion of funding provided directly by the Government to the 6 lead organisations has doubled, from €1.8m in 2023 to €3.6m this year. This funding did not exist 10 years ago and is in addition to the core funding provided by Foras na Gaeilge.