State pays €700,000 to teach Irish in colleges overseas
Library image. Photo: Getty Images
UNIVERSITIES across the globe are being grant-aided by the Government to get more people speaking Irish.
From Poland to the Czech Republic and across the Atlantic to North America, third-level institutions are receiving a total of €700,000 this year to promote Irish.
They include Karlova University in Prague; Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan (Poland); Freiburg University in Germany; Utrecht University in Holland; and the University of St Thomas in Texas.
In all, more than 40 universities and other third-level colleges are benefiting from the grant aid to support and develop the teaching of Irish abroad in 2009.
The largest single sum (€231,000 ) has been granted to the Fulbright Commission -- the official cultural exchange programme between the Irish and US governments. The Commission appoints Irish language assistants from Ireland to third-level institutions in the US.
Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Eamon O Cuiv said that the Ciste na Gaeilge Subsidiary Fund for Third-Level Institutions, which was established in 2006, was assisting the institutions around the world to provide Irish language and Celtic studies programmes.
The programmes offered an excellent opportunity to present the Irish language to the academic community worldwide, he stressed.
"They will give the Irish language equal status to other European languages being taught abroad. In addition, many students who study Irish in their own countries continue their studies here in Ireland. It is wonderful to see students from all over the world attending courses in the Gaeltacht," the minister added.
Fluent
Meanwhile, just under €700,000 was paid out last year to families in the Gaeltacht who are fluent in Irish.
Sceim Labhairt na Gaeilge provides for a grant of €260 per household in the Gaeltacht where Irish is the normal spoken language.
The children are tested in school by inspectors from the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs to see if their level of spoken Irish is up to scratch before the household is awarded the full grant.
In cases where the standard of Irish falls short, but where an inspector believes there is potential for the required standard to be reached within three years, a grant of 50pc is awarded.
In all, 3,455 applications were received by the department -- a reduction of 90 on the previous school year.
- Brian McDonald
