asked the Minister for Education if she and the Secretary of her Department are members of the special Government committee of Ministers and Secretaries of Departments preparing for the full integration of Europe in 1992, which was mentioned in Dáil Éireann by An Taoiseach on 19 May 1988.
Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - European Integration.
48.
While I am not among the Ministers who form the core group of the committee in question, the Government decision on this matter names other specific Ministers, including myself as Minister for Education and departmental officials who will participate, when appropriate, in the work of this committee.
The Minister's reply is commendably brief. Unfortunately it has bad news in it. The fact that the Minister for Education is not a member of a core group dealing with the preparation for 1992 seems to me to be an extraordinary omission. I would like to ask the Minister how she feels she can make a full input into one of the most important areas in Europe which is the question of our initiatives on modern language teaching without being a member of that core group considering, for example, that her own constituency colleague, Deputy Albert Reynolds, made a speech recently in which he condemned the state of language learning in this country. I would like to ask the Minister what Ministers are in the core group and if at this stage she will now request the Taoiseach to insist that the Department of Education is made a member of this group in view of the crucial and central importance of the language area to our success in dealing with 1992.
I am very pleased with my record, that no matter what else I do in my term of office, I have taken the front lead in the provision of languages other than French. In Deputy Hussey's four years of office the number of students taking other languages dropped in percentage terms. I will leave behind me a record of an increased number of students taking foreign languages other than French. The number of students taking languages other than French has dropped——
It is still dropping.
No. The number of students who will take up other languages in September will have increased and from then on there will be a considerable increase. When I was in Europe recently at the Council of Ministers I made a very strong intervention, both written and spoken, on the need for diversification in foreign languages. The following week, Commissioner Marin was in Ireland and met with three Ministers, Deputy Ahern, Deputy O'Hanlon and myself. My officials and I had a two hour meeting with him and separately with his officials in the afternoon on education matters and, in particular, on the matter of diversification in foreign languages. That same night I was among a small number who met him for dinner and for later discussions on the same point.
Europe is at present considering as part of its agenda the proposals which I put forward at that meeting in Brussels in May. I am very pleased to be one of the Ministers specifically named by the Taoiseach in the Government decision, to be brought into the committee's deliberations when matters pertaining to education are being discussed. Indeed, within my Department we are already taking steps to see that we will be taking the lead in the need for diversification. I thoroughly commend my constituency colleague, the Minister, Deputy Reynolds, and discussed with him a speech that he was to make on foreign languages and on the need for diversification. I told him that for too long that subject had not been addressed here. It is a great pity that there is now this brouhaha in 1988, when we should have been in a similar state three or four years ago.
A final question.
The Minister is very provocative, indeed. When I came into office I had to undertake a complete change in all the curricula of languages which had not been touched by the former Government. Each one had to be brought into the 20th century. Oral and aural examinations had to be introduced——
The Deputy abandoned them for one year.
This had been totally ignored by the previous Government. When the Minister has time to stop being provocative, would she agree that language learning and the leap forward needed to be taken in this country cannot be carried out exclusively in the classroom, that it must be carried out in very many other ways? Will the Minister be applying specifically, through the Government, for increased regional and structural funds for setting up specialist language centres in the different regions of Ireland outside the schools, in order to give a special impetus to language learning? These specialist language centres have been suggested by many more people than myself, although they did appear in the Fine Gael document, Language Learning and Teaching, which we brought out recently. What specific initiative in terms of specialist language centres funded by the regional and structural funds will the Minister be undertaking in this year of 1988?
One of the initiatives which I shall be taking in September will be related to the provision of languages, other than French, in specific, targeted schools for the first time.
Schools?
Would the Deputy please let me finish?
I did not hear her.
With regard to the Deputy's second supplementary on specialist language centres, that will be forming part of the submission which we will be making in November to the European Commission and to the European Ministers. There are very many strands to this, but the overriding thing is that we need these. First, there will be provision at second level. There has been much talk and many submissions have been received with regard to the provision of French in the leaving certificate classes in primary schools but that is another matter altogether. There is the business element and RTCs in general are very advanced here in providing commercial and business German, Spanish and Italian in some of these colleges. There is the need for language centres which would allow business people to partake of commercial and business Spanish, German and Italian education. These are the various initiatives which we are at present preparing within the Department. I shall be taking specific steps in September which I have outlined and from then on we shall be rolling ahead with all our plans for language diversification.
I told Commissioner Marin when he visited us that not alone were we pushing this matter — the day of his visit was the day the Fine Gael document came out — but that there was unanimity among all parties across the Parliament in approval of whatever measures could be introduced by Ireland, or whatever resources could be obtained by Ireland towards language diversification. He was particularly pleased to hear that and took note of it. I intend to repeat that in Europe in the autumn.
The time has passed, but I shall allow a brief supplementary question from Deputy Hussey.
I want to assure the Minister that I shall continue to harry her and her Department——
There is no need.
——on this subject, as I have done in the areas of sexism and sex stereotyping. It would appear that nothing would happen otherwise.
The Deputy must be joking.
Will the Minister also take steps to use the skills of the very many people in this country who are not teachers but have a fluent language ability or who, for example, are native speakers of their language, in order to hasten this programme? Will she bring these people into the schools and use them in an assistant capacity, or in the specialist language centres? Will the Minister set out now to identify and to use those very many people resident in this country who can help us to deal more quickly with our problem?
I would be open to all sorts of suggestions. That seems an eminently sensible one. For the record, let me say that for the four years of Coalition rule no drive, no impetus, no direction and no dynamism were given to this subject. I am now doing so.