§ 20. Mr. JenkinsTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what progress is being made in establishing opportunities for the use of the Irish language in education in Northern Ireland. [44759]
§ 23. Ms OsborneTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what progress is being made in establishing opportunities for the use of the Irish language in Northern Ireland education. [44762]
§ Mr. WorthingtonIn fulfilment of the commitment in the Good Friday Agreement a Draft Order in Council was recently laid before the House placing a statutory duty on the Department of Education to encourage and facilitate Irish-medium education. The Order also includes provision for day one recurrent funding of new Irish-medium schools and powers to fund a promotional body in line with current arrangements for integrated education. Seven primary schools and one secondary school currently receive 100 per cent. grant-aid for recurrent expenditure and these cater for 90 per cent. of the 1,400 pupils educated through the medium of Irish in Northern Ireland. In addition, plans to expand pre-school provision this year will include a number of places in Irish-medium settings.
The teaching of Irish meets the foreign language requirement in the statutory curriculum and it is estimated that some 24,000 pupils are studying Irish at present in other secondary schools.