I have a friend from Estonia...

guX

Right, I know this guy from Estonia who would like to come to Ireland and study Irish here when he's finished in school.

First of all, does anyone know how the grades he gets in the Riigieksam (Estonian State Exams) convert into CAO points, and would he be entitled to free third-level education here? Also, he was wondering if one needs to be fluent in Irish to study it here at third level. He's fairly good at Irish, he's better than I am at it, but he's never really had any formal education in it, he just learnt a lot of it by listening to some tapes he found in a local library along with some books.

So, is there any hope for him do you know?

This should answer the questions about free third-level education. Apart from that, most friends of mine who are studying Irish would be fluent in it, though it really depends. There's a new course starting in Trinity which is called 'Irish Studies' or something like that which has the first year set as a revision year, with you only progressing to LC standard Irish by second year... so it depends on the course!

I'd guess that there would be tutorials for those not mother tongue.

guX

This sounds good so far, all I need to know now is how his state examinations would convert into CAO points, or what way that's dealt with?