{"id":477202,"date":"2026-06-01T09:00:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T09:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/477202\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T09:00:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T09:00:10","slug":"coalition-row-looms-with-no-new-irish-language-schools-planned-to-open-until-2032-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/477202\/","title":{"rendered":"Coalition row looms with no new Irish-language schools planned to open until 2032 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tensions have arisen between the Coalition partners over comments by Minister for Education Hildegarde Naughton<\/a> that there are no plans to open any new Irish-language primary or secondary schools until at least 2032. <\/p>\n

Her Cabinet colleague Minister for Social Protection and the Gaeltacht<\/a> Dara Calleary has said he is \u201cnot happy\u201d with the comments, especially the absence of a plan to open a single Gaelchol\u00e1iste (secondary school) over the next five years. <\/p>\n

He and Fianna F\u00e1il<\/a> colleagues, including the Taoiseach, have said they intend to take the matter up with the Fine Gael Minister.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be a key priority for me to expand the availability of education through Irish,\u201d Calleary<\/a> said on Sunday. <\/p>\n

Naughton confirmed to Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s Aengus \u00d3 Snodaigh last month that no new Irish-medium schools were planned for the period 2026 to 2031. <\/p>\n

A spokeswoman for the department pointed out there were no English-medium schools planned either, other than new special schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis position is kept under constant review by the department. It is not therefore possible to be definitive at this stage on the need, or otherwise, for new schools over the next five years \u2013 it is just that there are none planned currently,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

The number of Gaelscoileanna (primary schools) in the State increased significantlyfrom the 1970s on when groups of parents began to establish Irish-language schools in their communities, mostly in temporary accommodation and often in the face of opposition from the Department of Education. <\/p>\n

Between 1990 and 2000, 56 Gaelscoileanna and Gaelchol\u00e1ist\u00ed were established. Between 2000 and 2010, a further 37 Irish-language schools came into being, most founded by parents.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Inside a Quaker-ethos secondary school in Ireland: \u2018There is a high expectation of good behaviour\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

However, the department changed rules in 2011 making it more difficult for parents to establish their own schools. Since then the number of new Irish-medium schools has declined dramatically. There was a total of 14 new Irish-medium schools in the decade between 2010 and 2020, a decline of 70 per cent compared to the late 1990s. <\/p>\n

Just five new Irish-medium schools have been established in the State in the past five years, one of which is a secondary school.<\/p>\n

Calleary has argued there is a need for more new Gaelchol\u00e1ist\u00ed. \u201cFor those children who go to Gaelscoileanna, there should be a pathway to secondary school and indeed to third level through the medium of Irish,\u201d he has said. <\/p>\n

However, that is unlikely in the short-to-medium term. The departmental spokeswoman said the general direction of travel on overall enrolments was downwards. \u201cThis creates significant capacity within existing schools to absorb increased demographics arising from housing roll-out in most areas,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

The department has pointed to a falling birth rate since 2010, which will mean a reduction in the number of students in secondary schools over the next decade. Consequently, the need to establish new schools generally will be reduced with existing capacity meeting demand.<\/p>\n

There is a commitment in the programme for government to establish Gaelscoileanna and Gaelchol\u00e1ist\u00ed where there is demand. The department also established a taskforce in November 2025 to examine the models for future Irish-medium education provision. <\/p>\n

Just four new Irish-medium post-primary schools have been founded since 2014: Col\u00e1iste Ghl\u00f3r na Mara in Balbriggan, Gaelchol\u00e1iste an Phiarsaigh in Rathfarnham, Gaelchol\u00e1iste Charraig U\u00ed Leighin in Cork and Gaelchol\u00e1iste Mhaigh Nuad in Maynooth, Co Kildare<\/p>\n

Aidan Kinsella is secretary of Imeasc, a group that lobbies for Irish-medium education. He said the difficulty was that because these groups were in a minority, Irish-language schools would very rarely be favoured by the demographic surveys currently used by the department.<\/p>\n

Kinsella said this weekend that legislation was required to ensure Irish-language education was provided where there was demand for it. He said 60 per cent of children who go to Gaelscoileanna cannot continue Irish-medium education into secondary school. Kinsella said 13 of the 26 counties had no Gaelchol\u00e1iste. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tensions have arisen between the Coalition partners over comments by Minister for Education Hildegarde Naughton that there are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268573,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,7038,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-477202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-irish-politics","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}