A NUMBER of Irish language summer colleges may be forced to increase their fees following the withdrawal of a Government teaching grant.

However, many of the bigger colleges - some in the Galway Gaeltacht - face an even bigger dilemma, having already set their fees for next summer before the Department of Education and Science had made their announcement.

The annual teaching grant is worth about €50 per student and is paid directly to the college.

It was a capitation grant which was paid to cover the cost of interviewing each student to assess the level of their spoken Irish.

Conradh na Gaeilge has already called on the Department to reverse the decision on the basis that it encourages the colleges to offer courses at reasonable prices to parents.

Indeed Cochoiste na gColáistí Samhradh (Camcos), the umbrella organisation of Irish language colleges has also asked to meet the Minister for Education and Science, Batt O’Keeffe but have not had a response to date.

Gearóid Ó Brosnacháin, Chairman of Camcos, told The Connacht Tribune that there had been no negotiation or discussion or indeed no direct notification to either his organisation or the colleges.

Speaking in Irish, Mr. Ó Brosnacháin said that he hadn’t known anything about the decision to cut this grant until he was contacted by the Media.

“Nationally, we estimate that this adds up to a loss of ...