The Department of Education has apologised to an Irish emigrant who was removed by officials from an Irish language course after returning from Australia.

Mr Eamon Gilmore (DL, Dun Laoghaire) said the man was a schoolteacher in Australia, where he had lived and worked for 33 years. He had fluent Irish and his ambition was to return to Ireland and teach Irish.

He replied to a public advertisement to be admitted to the Teastas i dTeanga na Gaeilge (TTG) course which would enable him to teach Irish at second level and was informed in writing last June that he had been accepted.

But on the first day of the course he was told by a Department of Education official that he should not have been admitted because he did not have Irish or a subject studied through Irish in his primary degree, Mr Gilmore added.

The Minister of State, Mr Noel Treacy, for the Minister for Education, Mr Martin, said that the Department had fully acknowledged its error and apologised. It had also invited him to make contact again to see if it could be of assistance in any other respect.