Germany is one of Ireland's most important European trading partners, yet the teaching of the German language is in decline in Irish schools. In the last two years alone, more than 50 schools have dropped German. So says Mr Pierce H Purcell, who is president of the German Teachers Association of Ireland.

At the beginning of the last decade, almost one-third do of all Junior Cert students studied German. Since then there has been a slow decline in the numbers, down to a quarter of Junior Cert students. "German should be the the most widely taught foreign language in Irish schools," Mr Purcell said. The IDA, he noted, had predicted a shortage of 1,620 fluent German speakers in Irish industry by the end of this year. German is now the second language in Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic - all countries which are likely to join the EU in the near future.