Legislate to Educate

There has never been more of a desire for our children to have the opportunity to be educated through Irish in our local communities, with almost 50% of people wanting this option.¹

However as the Department of Education has never been tasked through legislation to make provision for Irish-medium education (IME), the vast majority of our children who want to are prevented from doing so. Outside the Gaeltacht, only 2.5% of children can currently expect to complete their education through Irish.

The lack of legislation has resulted in Department of Education procedures to establish new schools discriminating against gaelscoileanna / gaelcholáistí. In the past 15 years applications for 60 new IME schools were made – 10 were approved. The Department currently has no plans for new IME schools to open in the coming 5-7 years, despite over 90% of the country without access to a gaelcholáiste.

Meanwhile in Wales, legislation has enabled Welsh-medium education for the past 60 years to grow from almost zero to 23% today; with a target to increase this to 40% and then 50% over the next 15-25 years.

If Ireland wants to emulate Wales, we need our politicians to act now.

• Legislation will ensure Irish-medium education is provided sustainably across the country for the first time since Independence.
• Responsibility for the future of Irish-medium education is with the Dáil, not the Department.
• We need all politicians across all parties to publicly state whether they support the call for legislation, and if not – why not?

Supporting the call for legislation will help ensure that future generations can have the gift of Irish.