§ Mr. MacDonaldTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs whether the meeting of the British-Irish Council held in November 2003 identified areas for enhanced inter-governmental cooperation in respect of indigenous, minority and lesser-used languages. [174185]
Mr. Leslie: The meeting of the British-Irish Council in November 2003 focused on indigenous, minority and lesser-used languages. It was agreed that members of the BIC should:
- jointly consider outcomes of research into intergenerational language transmission;
- carry out an assessment of structures supporting indigenous language learning in adult education in each of the BIC administrations;
- work together to identify priorities for their respective indigenous languages in relation to information and communication technology development;
- consider together the potential benefits of co-operating on the development of language use surveys; and
- share information on their experiences of the relationship between planning policy and linguistic considerations.