Brian Brennan (Wicklow-Wexford, Fine Gael)
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718. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if there are grants available for the promotion and running of Irish night classes in adult education; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [68140/25]

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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SOLAS has advised my officials that there is no dedicated funding stream within the FET sector for the promotion and running of Irish night classes in adult education. However, Education and Training Boards (ETBs) assess the demand for FET programmes to be delivered through Irish within communities and, where practicable, deliver programmes to meet identified needs.

Several ETBs, particularly those servicing Gaeltacht areas, participate in the Breacadh Scheme. Breacadh assists ETBs by producing teaching, learning, and other resources through Irish, and by providing tutor training and curriculum development support. ETBs also offer Irish language classes across a variety of levels on a sessional, part-time and evening class basis. Provision that leads toward accreditation at National Framework for Qualifications (NFQ) Level 3 upwards is available.

In addition, charities and other organisations can apply to their ETB for the Adult Literacy for Life (ALL) Collaboration and Innovation and REACH Funds. This includes Irish language projects and organisations, subject to meeting eligibility criteria. The ALL Collaboration and Innovation Fund supports programmes addressing unmet literacy needs in adults, while REACH primarily seeks to engage disadvantaged learners in adult education. Coiste Forbartha Chnoc Fola and Meitheal Pleanala Teanga an Iarthuaiscirt (MPTIT), for example, received €6,820 this year to provide a nine-week course in digital skills for older adults integrating the Irish language with unmet digital literacy needs.

It is a matter for individual ETBs to make decisions on which providers to fund, through well-established grant application processes, and to programme FET services, in response to local need and within allocated budgets. In line with the functions set out in the Education and Training Board Act of 2013, as Minister, I have no role in such operational matters.