Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Le tosú, is mian liom a rá go bhfuil brón orm mar níl a lán Gaeilge agam. Bainfidh mé triail as Gaeilge briste. Tá a fhios agam go bhfuil Gaeilge i bhfad níos fearr ná Béarla cliste. Tá fadhb agam de bharr nach bhfuil a lán Béarla cliste agam either.

Gabhaim buíochas le gach cainteoir anseo. Tá a fhios agam go bhfuil fadhb mhór i mBaile Átha Cliath 8. Níl go leor spáis le haghaidh na ndaltaí atá ag lorg spáis sa scoil, bíodh sé sin aon scoil. Tá a fhios agam go bhfuil sé i bhfad níos deacra do na clainne atá ag lorg Gaelcholáistí. Ag deireadh an lae, is leis an Roinn Oideachais a luíonn an fhadhb anseo. Dúirt na finnéithe ón fheachtas chun Gaelcholáiste a bhunú i mBaile Átha Cliath 2 agus 4 go bhfuil an cur chuige ón Roinn Oideachas ag teacht salach ar pholasaí an Rialtais, ach ceapaim go bhfuil sé ag teacht salach ar pholasaí na Roinne Oideachais.

There is a real frustration for me because, when I have spoken to the Department of Education, it is just pure hypocrisy. I am going to lapse into Béarla because I do not know the Irish word for "hypocrisy". The Department sets out these rules and criteria and says it could not possibly do anything until these criteria are met. When it is shown how these criteria have been met, it completely dismisses them. The witnesses from Dublin 10 and 12 asked an bhfuil soláthar ann do scoil nua ag teacht go ceantar le bheith ina Ghaelscoil mura bhfuil Gaelscoil ann? This, to me, really cuts to the heart of it because there does not seem to be one. I would love this confirmed. I came down here to support some local campaigns, but this very question is something that I have been banging my head off a brick wall with the Department about. When it comes to the bunscoil level, there have been changes to policy and the patronage contests and competitions but this does not seem to have translated through to the patronage process at the meánscoil level. When I have raised this glaring hypocrisy with the Department, it has kind of just shrugged its shoulders and said that is how it is. This seems to be a simple fix.

Obviously there is a problem, as was mentioned, about how the Department is just not building new schools. This is again something we are seeing in Dublin 8 where there are extensions to existing schools instead of new schools despite the numbers being there. We now seem to have two polices from the Department of Education that are utterly undermining education in general but education through Irish especially. We are not building schools and when we do build schools, we are not taking the policy that worked at bunscoil, and which has massively increased and improved the bunscoil provision, and translated it across. One of the main reasons for me coming in today was to put that on record, namely, the hypocrisy of the Department of Education in this regard.

Any responses are welcome. Feel free to respond as Gaeilge. I have been kindly provided with translation equipment.