1359. Deputy Robert Dowds asked the Minister for Education and Skills the number of hours per week that are spent teaching Irish in secondary schools. [32324/15]

Departmental Circular 0025/2012 provides that students in Irish-medium schools should have access to an Irish lesson every day. Under the new Junior Cycle, Irish will be designed for a minimum of 240 hours of timetabled student engagement each over the three years. This is not a maximum or target time, and is intended to give schools flexibility to plan a Junior Cycle programme that will meet the educational needs of their students.