Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Question 165: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if all students have the right to be educated through the Irish language; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11294/11]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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The Education Act provides for the right of parents to send their children to a school of the parents' choice, having regard to the rights of patrons and the efficient use of resources. The Act also places specific obligations on the system to contribute to the realisation of national policy and objectives in relation to Irish, to the maintenance of Irish as the primary community language in Gaeltacht areas, and to promoting the language and cultural needs of students having regard to the choices of their parents.

The promotion of the Irish language has been an important aim of successive Irish Governments and the Department of Education and Skills has responded to the increased demands for Irish-medium schooling in recent years. At primary level, this is evidenced in the increased numbers of gaelscoileanna established outside Gaeltacht areas. Since 2005, a total of 17 new gaelscoileanna have been recognised by the Department to give a total of 138 recognised Irish-medium primary schools. At post-primary level, the number of gaelcholáistí (Irish-medium second-level schools) has grown to 45 (of which 13 have been established since 2000) and this provision is supplemented by 10 aonad (specialised Irish-medium units attached to an existing second-level school) and 10 sruth (stream or Irish-speaking class within an English medium school). Both the aonad and sruth structure facilitate the provision of Irish-medium education in cases where there is significant demand for education in Irish but where this demand would be insufficient for an independent Irish-medium school.

The population increase over the past ten years or so has resulted in a requirement to provide significant additional school places in some areas of the country and this increase is expected to continue in the short to medium term. There are increasing demands for diversity of provision of school type, including Irish-medium education, distributed throughout the country in areas of both static and growing population. These growing demands have required a revision of the procedures for the recognition of new primary schools. These have been reviewed by the Commission on School Accommodation which reported in February 2011. The recommendations in the report are being considered by me in the context of the wider debate on patronage and pluralism in primary schools through the Forum which I have established in April 2011. The Forum is due to present its report at the end of the year.

In the interim my Department is adopting a strategy whereby it will only allow new primary schools to be established to cater for demographic growth in order to deliver on the overall priority that every child has a school place available to them. The demands to extend the provision of Irish-medium education at primary level will be considered in the context of the new arrangements which emerge from the outcome of the Forum's work.

At post-primary level, I am considering the arrangements that will apply for the recognition of new second-level schools consistent with the commitment in the programme for Government. Similar to the position at primary level, the intention is that new schools will only be established where there is demographic demand. The issue of how best to facilitate the provision of all-Irish education at post-primary level will form part of my consideration.