§ Mr. William RossTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what is his estimate of the number of people who(a) speak Irish and (b) are learning Irish; what amount of Government funds were spent on (i) teaching the language and (ii) otherwise promoting it during the current financial year; how much this represents per capita in Northern Ireland; how much per Irish 383W speaker and student; what were the figures five and 10 years ago; and what are his projections for the next three years.
§ Mr. HanleyIn the 1991 census of population, 131,974 persons aged three or over were recorded as able to speak Irish. For estimates of the number of pupils learning Irish at school, I would refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Antrim, North (Rev. Ian Paisley) on 17 November 1992,Official Report, columns 149–52, where it was estimated that, based on a 10 per cent. sample survey relating to those schools which offered Irish as a subject in the 1988–89 academic year, some 26,210 pupils were studying Irish. The numbers learning Irish in other educational institutions are not available centrally.
The total costs of teaching Irish are not separately identified.
The total of central Government expenditure—excluding the funding of Irish medium education and of teaching Irish in English medium mainstream education—in the current financial year is estimated at £668,000. Based on information available from the 1991 census of population, this equates to some £0.42 per head of population, or £5.06 per Irish speaker. Since information on the costs of teaching Irish is not available, a per student figure cannot be provided.
The equivalent figure five years ago was approximately £210,000. A figure for 10 years ago is not available.
Projections for expenditure on the promotion of the language for the next three years are also unavailable.