There will be hoots and hurrays from teachers in Irish-speaking schools to welcome a new multimedia pack for students. Launched by the Taoiseach last week, it is expected to have schoolgoers "ag scimeail an idirlin" and honing their writing skills for various media.

At the launch, the Taoiseach said he recognised the dearth of support material available to schools through the medium of Irish and welcomed the development of the pack, Young Writers' Workshop/An Scribhneoir Og, by GaelLinn and Granada Learning. It shows students how to write captions, handle scripts, develop storyboards and prepare broadcast material - all through Irish. To date, the CD-ROM publication has been available in English, French and German. Aimed at senior primary and junior post-primary students, the pack, initially developed by Granada Learning, is about developing writing skills such as "scriptscri bhneoireacht don teilifis agus dreachtu agus pleanail do chlaracha".

The format allows pupils of varying linguistic abilities to work to their own level on a chosen assignment. The package also includes study points, examples, a library of articles, photographs and video clips and an information index.

"Chuir me breis abhair isteach mar bhi se dirithe ar dhomhain an Bhearla," says Daithi O Dufaigh of Gael-Linn. The development of the Irish version included "giving a reference to Ireland and having an Irish context", he explains. "One of the reasons we got involved was the dearth of material in Irish, especially modern material using computer technology. There are only about two or three programmes available," he says, mentioning for example, those produced by Fios Feasa. The new pack will be distributed by Carroll Heinemann, at a cost of £78.95.