Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 18 February 2014
422. Deputy Seán Kyne asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the current status of the language assistants' scheme operating in the Gaeltacht; if this will be extended to all Irish medium schools; and if he will have an indicative timeframe should such an extension be granted. [8322/14]
View answerThe Irish Language Assistants Scheme (Scéim na gCúntóirí Teanga) was established as a pilot scheme in 1999 to strengthen the use of Irish as the spoken language among Gaeltacht schoolchildren. It was originally targeted at students with little or no Irish to enable them to follow the curriculum in Gaeltacht schools. My Department pays a grant to the organisations that administer the scheme at local level in the various Gaeltacht regions. An amount of €724,275 has been sanctioned for the current school year and a total of 85 language assistants are employed on a part-time basis under the scheme. Their duties now also include enriching the vocabulary of those students whose home language is Irish. Since the 2011/12 school year, I have sanctioned an increased allocation of €150,000 under the scheme which helps to provide extra contact hours as well as facilitating other improvements in the scheme. This extra allocation further supports the substantial number of Gaeltacht schoolchildren who benefit from the scheme.
While the operation of the scheme is reviewed on a regular basis, there are no plans at present to extend its scope. The Deputy will be aware that Gaelscoileanna is the national, voluntary organisation that provides advice and support for the development of Irish-medium schools at primary and at post-primary level. The organisation is funded by Foras na Gaeilge and has recently been selected as the lead organisation to be responsible for Irish-medium/immersion education and Irish-medium preschool education on an all-island basis as part of Foras na Gaeilge’s new funding arrangements for Irish language organisations.
