Dr. Ríona Ní Fhrighil:

I represent a group of parents from all over Ireland who are raising their children through Irish but outside the Gaeltacht area. The group emphatically believes that there should not be a hierarchy of minority rights and we do not seek to protect the educational rights of our children at the expense of any other minority. Indeed, as bilingual and often multilingual families, we welcome diversity of all types.

I will briefly outline our proposed amendments. First, we propose that Irish-medium schools be allowed to prioritise native Irish speakers in their admissions policies. This is a tiny minority at 3% of the Gaelscoil population or one child in every 30. Why should these children be prioritised? I am raising two little boys in Galway city. If they do not get into a Gaelscoil, they will be educated through English. There are consequences to that. First, from the first day in school they will have better Irish than their teacher. Second, their access to the language will be so limited in the curriculum that they will never develop high language literacy skills in their first language. Unfortunately, their oral proficiency skills will also drop. We know that from international research as well as research in Ireland. My young child has a speech and language problem and Barbara Uí Mhuirthile's child, who was here a few minutes ago, has trisomy 21 or Down's syndrome. They need support in their first language and English-medium schools do not have the resources or the expertise to provide that type of educational support.

This brings me to our second proposed amendment. My little boys wear Converse runners and they have Star Wars schoolbags. They are not clearly identifiable physically as Irish language speakers, nor do they have a language passport. For schools to identify native Irish language speakers, they must be allowed to observe the child interact with a parent or peers for the sole purpose of identifying that they are first language speakers of Irish. We propose this as a safeguard and to ensure that any positive discrimination for native speakers of Irish outside the Gaeltacht and in Irish-medium education cannot be abused or used cynically by others. This proposal is in line with best practice internationally in Canada and Finland.

To conclude, we welcome that, for the first time, the specific educational needs of Irish speaking children within the Gaeltacht have been recognised by the Government. It would be very unfortunate and unfair if this Bill, if it were to be implemented as it is currently drafted, unwittingly denied these educational rights to native Irish language speakers outside of the Gaeltacht. Our proposed amendments are cost neutral. They are limited in scope, clearly defined and are in line with best international practice. They are underpinned by our commitment, as daily multilinguals, to linguistic and cultural diversity and the pluralism that this Bill purports to espouse.