Wallace welcomes increase to Gaeltacht households who accommodate Irish Language learners
Meath East TD and Minister of State Mary Wallace welcomes the Grant increase to Gaeltacht households, who accommodate Irish Language Learners, from €9.50 to € 10.50 per day (€73.50 per week) for 2007. The new daily rate for households and hostels/boarding colleges will be €10.50 in 2007.
Also, for the very first time, a special grant of €20 per day will be paid for learners with special needs.
This is the seventh increase of this particular grant since 1998 - 1998/1999 (€5.60), 2000 (€6.30), 2001/2002 (€7.00), 2003/2004 (€8.00), 2005 (€9.00), 2006 (€9.50) and now in 2007 (€10.50). According to the arrangement between the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs and the Irish Language Summer Colleges, the colleges will pay a minimum of € 1.20 for each € 1 paid by the Department. Therefore, this is yet another way that Gaeltacht households will benefit from this increase by the Department. Countrywide, grants were paid in respect of more than 25,000 Irish Language Learners under the Scheme in 2006. This demonstrates the keen interest that young people from outside the Gaeltacht have in learning Irish.
It is important to pay an attractive rate to encourage households to remain in the Scheme and also to attract new households. This is an important Scheme to the Gaeltacht areas and to the Irish language, said Minister Wallace.