Debate contribution: Irish-medium Education (Workforce Plan) Bill: Second Stage
Debate contribution by Mr Danny Baker on .
- MLA
- Mr Danny Baker
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- 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 5482159
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I commend my friend and colleague for introducing this important legislation. His passion for and commitment to the Irish language has not gone unnoticed in my constituency or further afield. Before I start my contribution, I will say this: I said, yesterday, that we all have the opportunity to close gaps by introducing legislation in areas that Departments may not be prioritising or on issues that are falling through the gaps. It is important that the opportunity to do that exists and that it is utilised by all Members. The Identity and Language Act 2022 was a significant milestone in the long struggle to achieve historic recognition of the Irish language in the North. It followed many years of campaigning and is a credit to the vibrant, growing and thriving Irish language community across the island, which never gave up and the members of which made their voices heard. That is of particular importance, given that Irish speakers have been discriminated against, excluded and ignored by the state. The Identity and Language Act was not, however, the end of the journey. The work to enhance provision for the Irish language in our society goes on, and Sinn Féin will play its part in driving that forward. Irish-medium education is one of the fastest growing sectors in the North, but growth has outpaced workforce planning, leading to concern about teacher supply, training routes and specialist support. The Bill will formalise a strategic approach to addressing serious and persistent staffing shortages across all roles, including teachers, classroom assistants and support staff. During the consultation process, a number of issues were highlighted that are specific to the Irish-medium education workforce. I will focus on special educational needs provision and assessment. SEN provision in Irish-medium education is critical. Pupils learning through Irish face higher levels of identified need but do not receive as much appropriate support as their English-medium peers. The gap is structural, linguistic and systemic, and it directly affects equity of access and educational outcomes. Irish-medium schools have a higher proportion of pupils with SEN than English-medium schools do. A 2024 report highlighted the fact that, for the 2023-24 academic year, 22·5% of Irish-medium pupils were recorded as having SEN, versus 19·1% in English-medium settings. At post-primary level, that gap widens to 30·1% versus 18·2%. Despite those facts, Irish-medium pupils are less likely to receive a formal statement of SEN. That disparity is due, partly, to the lack of assessment tools that are available in the Irish language and the absence of specialised staff in statutory support services, such as educational psychologists who are fluent in Irish, speech and language therapists who can assess bilingually and SEN support staff who are trained in an immersion context. There is no formal structure to ensure linguistic alignment between pupils and specialised professionals. Consequently, Irish-medium pupils with SEN can be and have been misidentified or missed completely, leading to delayed interventions, inaccurate diagnoses and reduced access to statutory support. I will finish on this point. This happens regularly across the board, but has happened a lot in my constituency. When children are learning through the medium of Irish, particularly in naíscoil
, and additional needs are identified but early intervention is not in place, parents are advised to take their children out of that setting and put them into English-medium settings.
556 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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