Third Level Education Dail Éireann — 2026-05-12 ============================================================ James Lawless (FF), Kildare North Níor cheart go mbeadh imní ar an Teachta faoina cuid Gaeilge, táimse ag foghlaim chomh maith. Maith thú as an bhfoghlaim. We will learn together. It is commendable when anyone attempts it. To meet the target, the goal is to have a workforce capable of speaking at least partly as Gaelige, but ideally 20% would have a strong ability and competency. A wide range of courses is available already. Some are fully in Irish, some are partly through Irish and there can be combinations. Course provision is determined by the institutions, because they are academically autonomous. It is not just within na hollscoileanna. I visited an education and training board, ETB, recently that was providing Irish-language education in night classes. We also support clubs and societies in a number of different activities on campuses, outside of the formal learning experience. I am very supportive of that, as is the Minister of State, Deputy Harkin. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-12/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:49+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-05-12