Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 45:

In page 15, line 29, to delete "school." and substitute the following:"school, and

(c) a school which teaches through the medium of Irish, and which gives priority in its admission policy to students who speak Irish as a home language, the admission statement of the school shall include a statement that the school does not discriminate in relation to the admission of students where it admits a student who speaks Irish as a home language in preference to others whose home language is not Irish.".

I and colleagues here, Deputies Funchion and Thomas Byrne, have been discussing amendment No. 75 with which, as the Minister will be aware, we have problems because we do not believe the Minister's amendment protects the child who is fluent and where Irish is the home language. We are willing, if the Minister would withdraw his amendment No. 75, to withdraw our amendments that deal with this until we have an opportunity to come together on a cross-party basis with relevant stakeholders and maybe Department officials.

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