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

Debate contribution by Mr Pat Sheehan on 14 April 2026.

MLA

Mr Pat Sheehan

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 5482397

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Go raibh maith agat, a Cheann Comhairle.

First of all, I thank everyone who participated in the debate. It was a very well-tempered debate.

Those who opposed the legislation raised two main issues: first, the fact that a strategy is being developed in the Department and, secondly, that there is an equality issue because Irish-medium education would be given a privileged position in our overall education system. Let me just clear up a few issues about equality. Questions were raised about why Irish-medium education would require different SEN support and whether that implied preferential treatment. It is important, therefore, to state at the outset, and to clarify, that Irish-medium education does not sit within one particular sector. There are Irish-medium schools and units in the maintained sector. There is provision in the controlled sector. Most recently, there is Irish-medium provision in the integrated sector at Scoil na Seolta. While Irish-medium education spans several sectors, it constitutes a distinct education system in the language of instruction. Therefore, from a SEN support perspective, the education system operates, in practice, through two media of instruction: education that is delivered through the medium of English and education that is delivered through the medium of Irish. All controlled, maintained, integrated and special schools that deliver education through English benefit from a fully developed and system-wide SEN infrastructure that is delivered in English. That includes educational psychology, assessment and follow-up and SEN-related training and advice that is provided by the Education Authority (EA). They get support from local impact team intervention and have access to specialist professional support services. Irish-medium schools, on the other hand, regardless of sectoral designation, deliver education entirely through Irish, which is the language of learning and assessment, not an additional or enrichment subject. Equivalent SEN services do not currently exist in a consistent or systematic way through the medium of Irish, despite Irish-medium pupils having the same statutory entitlements as all other pupils. The issue that is raised by the Bill is therefore not one of sectoral privilege or additional entitlement but one of parity of access. Irish-medium pupils with special educational needs should receive the same assessment, intervention and support as their English-medium peers. For that to be effective, it must be delivered in the language of instruction. The absence of SEN support that is delivered through Irish represents a structural gap in provision, affecting pupils across several sectors, rather than an advantage that is afforded to any one sector. Addressing that gap aligns with inclusive education principles and ensures that pupils are not disadvantaged based on the language through which they are educated. There was talk about the statutory duty on the Minister:

"to encourage and facilitate ... Irish-medium education."

There were some concerns that there would be some sort of change to or a strengthening of that statutory duty, but that is not the case. The Bill is not trying to change the statutory duty in the 1998 Order to encourage and facilitate Irish-medium education. Through the Bill, we are trying to give practical effect to that statutory duty. When it comes to equality, how has that statutory duty been implemented and carried out by successive Ministers? After 28 years, teachers in Irish-medium education still have to translate materials themselves for children in those schools. There is a deficit of bespoke materials and resources for children who are educated through the medium of Irish. That is after 28 years. If I had had my way, as I said in my opening remarks, I would have introduced a much more expansive and wide-ranging piece of legislation. It would have included a duty on the Minister to ensure parity between children in Irish-medium schools and those in English-medium schools in the provision of resources, particularly by having resources in the language in which the children are educated. The fact that teachers in Irish-medium schools still have to translate materials themselves is a stain on the Department of Education. Some Irish-medium schools have been in temporary buildings for nearly 40 years. Where was the statutory duty there to encourage and facilitate Irish-medium education? Coláiste Feirste, the main Irish-medium post-primary school in the North, had a major development that, I would say, opened 10 years ago for a population of 550 students. There are now more than 1,000 pupils at Coláiste Feirste. It is bursting at the seams. Iontaobhas na Gaelscolaíochta and Comhairle na Gaelscolaíochta have been begging the Department for over seven years now to provide a site for a second post-primary school in Belfast, preferably in North Belfast because many of the students who attend Coláiste Feirste come from North Belfast. What has the response been? "No sites are available". Nothing can be provided for children who want to continue their education in Irish after primary school at post-primary schools. The fact that there are so many children in that school, which was designed for 550 pupils, affects the fabric of the school, levels of wear and tear and access to toilets — everything — but there has been no urgency on the part of the Minister or the Department to ensure that a second site is provided for children in post-primary education. I am not saying that the Department has done nothing — I am not saying that at all — but I am saying that the Irish-medium sector is growing faster than the Department is dealing with the challenges that exist in that sector.

Yes, go ahead.

I absolutely agree that there are problems in delivering SEN support in English-medium schools as well. There is absolutely no doubt about that. The Committee has been holding an inquiry for the past number of months, and anybody who sits on the Committee and has listened to the evidence that has been given will be clear that the provision that is there at the minute does not cut the mustard. One of the reasons comes back to an issue that we discussed yesterday, and we discussed before the Easter break. There is no cooperation at all between the Education Minister and the Health Minister. You know that, David, because you sit on the Committee, and you know that there is no cooperation there at all. It is an issue that requires cooperation and collaboration between the Health Department and the Education Department, and that is not there. We saw, on the issue —.

I will just finish this point. We saw, on the issue of the summer schemes for special schools, that the Education Minister could not even lift the phone to his counterpart in Health. I will give way.

To finish on the matter of equality, there were some concerns that we were arguing that the Irish-medium sector should be given a privileged position over other sectors. Mr Burrows is fairly new to the place, and he may not be familiar with all the procedures, but part of the process involved writing to the Equality Commission to inform it of what we were doing and of our policy intent. The Equality Commission did not identify any adverse impacts from the Bill. In fact, it highlighted the importance of properly resourced, planned provision, particularly in areas such as SEN, to ensure equality of opportunity for all children, including those in Irish-medium education. Therefore, the issue around a lack of equality for children in English-medium settings because of the proposed legislation is just a nonsense. Let us move on to the argument that, because the Minister is bringing forward an Irish-medium education strategy, the legislation is superfluous, there is no need for it and that the Minister will deal with all those issues. We have written to the Minister on a few occasions to ask him what will be contained in his strategy, and, to be quite honest, we have not got very satisfactory answers. The answers are always pretty vague. He has told us that something is being considered, but he will not give us the full picture of what will be in it. There is currently no statutory requirement on the Department to produce a workforce plan for Irish-medium education. That is the gap that the Bill addresses.

A non-statutory strategy, however welcome in principle, offers no guarantees of delivery, no requirement for timelines and no mechanisms for accountability.

We are being asked to place our faith in a strategy that is not due until 2027, after an Assembly election, from a Minister whose track record on the Irish language is shocking. I say that not to score any points; I say it because it is a fact. None of the people in the Irish-medium sector — the parents who send their children to Irish-medium schools; the children who attend Irish-medium schools; the people throughout the North who go to Irish language ranganna

; and the people who do not speak Irish but have a love for it and like to see it being promoted — trust the Minister to deliver a strategy for Irish-medium education. Nobody trusts him. The Minister knows why they do not trust him. They know his history with the Irish language. They know that he was the Minister who cut the Líofa bursaries for young children from disadvantaged backgrounds to go to Gaeltachtaí to learn Irish. It was a miserly sum that he cut, and, to add salt to the wound, he wished everyone a happy Christmas at the end of his email. Against that backdrop, it is entirely reasonable to ask whether a future strategy will even be delivered.

I will give way in a second. I do not want to make it entirely personal about the Minister. His party is notorious for its hostility to the language, and that is something that I do not understand. How can you hate a language? How can you think that a language is offensive? What is offensive about a dual language sign in a public building in 2026? What was so offensive that the DUP thought it a good idea that its Minister should join a judicial review? I will give way to the Minister.

1,679 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 15:18 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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