Debate contribution: Irish-medium Education (Workforce Plan) Bill: Second Stage

Debate contribution by Mr Peter Martin on 14 April 2026.

MLA

Mr Peter Martin

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

14 April 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Irish-medium Education (Workforce Plan) Bill: Second Stage

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5482113

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Second Stage of the Irish-medium Education (Workforce Plan) Bill. I plan to make just a few short points and concentrate on whether there is a necessity for it. The Deputy Chair and the Chair of the Education Committee have commented on that, and it is probably where the tension lies. Both Members who spoke mentioned the statutory duty under article 89 of the 1998 Order to encourage, facilitate and develop Irish-medium education. The Bill sponsor mentioned that in his opening remarks. That is already a substantial duty, which the Chair of the Education Committee referenced in his speech. Not every sector in Northern Ireland has the privilege of enjoying it. The Committee Chair mentioned the integrated sector: the Department has two duties towards that sector in Northern Ireland and one towards the Irish-medium sector. Neither the controlled nor the maintained sector in Northern Ireland enjoy such privileges. I understand and recognise the previous comments about other sectors facing specific issues — I hope to get to those — but I just point out that question of equity. That is important. Teachers and pupils across Northern Ireland should be aware of that. The Department has acknowledged and recognised the challenges that the Irish-medium education (IME) sector faces. Those became clear in the consultation responses that the Bill sponsor referenced. The Minister will, no doubt, talk about this, but the Department is already addressing some of the workforce planning issues through the IME strategy, including retention, recruitment, pathways, capacity and some resource development. It is fair to say that the specifics of the IME sector are different from other sectors in Northern Ireland, in that that sector requires qualified teachers to be fluent enough in Irish to teach their specific subject. In answer to a question from the Committee Chair, the Minister referenced the bursaries that he introduced in, I think, 2025 to cover off Irish-medium teacher training and tuition fees, offering, I believe, £1,000 a month is offered to student teachers to encourage them in that area. Structural issues were referenced by the sponsor and picked up on by the Committee Chair. There are other structural issues in teacher recruitment in Northern Ireland, and they are not specific to the IME sector. There is significant pressure across Northern Ireland to get maths teachers, chemistry teachers and physics teachers. Those are not peculiar to the IME sector; they are across —

— every sector in Northern Ireland.

I think that the Chair beat you to it. I will take an intervention from the Committee Chair and then one from Mr Sheehan.

I will take the Deputy Chair's intervention at the same time.

I accept both points, and I will try to address them. I have been on the Committee for only the better part of six months, so I am probably not up to speed with some of the things that the Committee has been dealing with. However, I accept the points, and, to a degree, there is an element of chicken and egg in that regard. The Member highlighted the added requirements for someone to come in and use speech and language therapy in that context. I hope that, whilst the language is immersive in a range of ways, if a child in an IME school really needed speech and language therapy, some way could be found to address that. While I accept those points, I simply make the wider point that the issue is not just purely structural, and that it is not just purely structural in IME. On the wider issue, my understanding is that the Department has established an Irish-medium strategy steering group and a working group to address some of the issues that have been spoken about today. A range of organisations are involved, including CnaG, the Education Authority (EA), the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools (CCMS), the Controlled Schools' Support Council (CSSC), the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA) — that is a lot of acronyms — and Altram, as well as Irish-medium principals from across the sector. My understanding is that work is ongoing in that area — I hope that the Minister will touch on that in his closing remarks — and that the issues around workforce pressures and strategies to alleviate those are being dealt with. I hope that those groups will solve some of the problems and issues that have been highlighted today by the Bill sponsor and the Chair of the Committee. We want all sectors in Northern Ireland, regardless of where they are, what language they speak or what faith tradition they come from, to feel valued and successful in their education. In the explanatory and financial memorandum (EFM), the Bill sponsor looked at three options: the do-nothing option; the wait-to-see-what-the-strategy-has-produced option — I am paraphrasing it a little because I gave away my copy there — and the option to introduce additional primary legislation. It is my view and that of my party that the issues that have been identified and highlighted by the sponsor and the Chair of the Education Committee today and that have come out of the consultation are, in fact, best dealt with through the work that is already ongoing by the Department of Education. That is the most appropriate mechanism for addressing those issues.

890 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 15:17 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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