From Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
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Jack Chambers TD, Government Chief Whip and Minister of State for the Gaeltacht and Sport, will visit the Cois Fharraige Gaeltacht today (Thursday 29 July).
The visit will begin this morning when he will meet the Chairman and Chief Executive of Údarás na Gaeltachta and also pay a visit to their client company - Aran Biomedical, in An Spidéal.
He will then return to Ros an Mhíl where he will announce a grant of €58,245 to the Ros an Mhíl School Committee which will enable the school to appoint consultants to design and build a playgroup on the school site. This means that the playschool will have a permanent centre, which they do not currently have.
He will also seize the opportunity to approve a grant of up to €43,369 to Comhlacht Forbartha Inis Meáin to carry out additional works to the new building it is developing on the island while the contractor is on site.
This assistance will enable the company to provide additional services from the centre - a gteic and playschool. This brings the total approved by Minister Chambers’ department for the development of this centre to €521,629.
From there, Minister Chambers will drop in to Fíbín's headquarters in Baile na hAbhann and to the Pota Café next door to meet the Tuismitheoirí na Gaeltachta organisation, as well as parents who avail of the supports they provide, with the assistance of the department. He will also launch research on Irish language issues among Gaeltacht families. After that he will visit TG4.
Minister of State Chambers said:
"I am really pleased to visit the Cois Fharraige area again to see for myself the worthwhile work being done on the ground for the benefit of the Gaeltacht and the Irish language. The funding I am announcing today for the development of a playschool in the Ros an Mhíl area and the development of a community centre on Inis Meáin will benefit both communities.
"I am also honoured to have the opportunity to officially launch the latest research commissioned by Tuismitheoirí na Gaeltachta - with the assistance of my department. The research will help to make further use of the significant resources being made available to the language planning process as a whole - especially as the process relates to Gaeltacht families who are raising children through Irish or who wish to do so. This tour also gave me the opportunity to gain a better insight into the work of Údarás and their client companies in Cois Fharraige specifically. The newly published strategy of the Údarás for the period to 2025 reflects the work they are undertaking and planning over that period for the benefit of the Gaeltacht."
The grants are provided to Coiste Scoil Ros an Mhíl and Comhlacht Forbartha Inis Meáin respectively under the Community and Language Supports Programme. See more information about the programme.
A 3 year funding programme worth €1.6m was recently approved for the organisation Tuismitheoirí na Gaeltachta. This increased fund - which follows on from the previous 3 year funding - has been made available to enable the organisation to better support, on the basis of Gaeltacht language planning areas and in conjunction with the network of Language Planning Officers, Gaeltacht families who are or who wish to raise their children through Irish.