Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Acting Chairman and am delighted to have the opportunity to introduce this Bill. It has been a long time in gestation but, in that time, we have managed to develop elements. There was consensus in the Lower House that an admission Bill was required, specifically on the matter of religion being used in selection and to provide the Minister with the power to intervene and make an order for a special class where an area needed one.

The third issue that was considerably debated in the Lower House was one on which I intend to introduce a Committee Stage amendment, that being, how to prioritise access to Irish-medium schools. There was a Government amendment as well as a number of Opposition amendments. The line we are trying to take is to introduce a provision whereby a child who has a minimum level of fluency that is consistent with normal usage of the language in non-education settings has priority access to the school. Some formulations sought to frame this in terms of exchanges between the child and a parent or speaking Irish from birth, but an assessment showed that these proposals seemed to give rise to problems of discrimination, in that they would be using what the lawyers described as pedigree rather than fluency to be a factor in determining access. I intend to introduce an amendment on Committee Stage that I hope will commend itself to the House.

Many of the Senators will be familiar with the Bill's sections, although the way they are laid out in the index is not easy to read. One must look at the headings.