Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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304. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the actions her Department has taken to support Irish speaking early years childcare settings and to increase the number of these settings; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25059/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Funding provided by my Department for Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School-Age Childcare (SAC) services is the same for both Irish-medium and English-medium services, whether inside or outside Gaeltacht areas. In line with commitments in the 5-year Action Plan for Irish language, my Department recruited an Irish Language Support Coordinator in 2022 to drive the development of a National Plan and provided funding in 2023 to Better Start to recruit an Irish Language Early Years Specialist to support mentoring and advice to Irish-medium early learning and care settings.

The Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (DTCAGSM) provides additional supports for Irish-medium ELC services in the Gaeltacht through its agencies and organisations such as Comhar Naíonraí na Gaeltachta. In addition, in June 2024, DTCAGSM announced five-year funding to provide a comprehensive support and development service to naíonraí outside of the Gaeltacht, to be administered by Gaeloideachas. Furthermore, my Department has provided funding to Gaeloideachas in 2025 to support Irish-medium ELC settings.

Additionally, my Department is working in collaboration with other relevant Departments and agencies to develop a national plan to further the development of Irish language provision in the ELC and SAC sector.

The development of such a plan is a commitment in the 5-Year Action Plan for the Irish Language. The national plan is expected to support the delivery of two commitments in First 5: the Whole-of-Government Strategy for Babies, Young Children and their Families: “Introduce measures to ensure that children in Gaeltacht areas have access to Irish-medium ELC provision” and “Develop mechanisms to provide Irish-language supports to ELC provision where there are high proportions of children who are learning through the medium of Irish”. The plan is also expected to support the delivery of commitments in the Programme for Government to: “Support naíonraí and creches to ensure early education access in Gaeltacht communities and beyond” and “Plan the development of State-led facilities in tandem with the school building programme, including Irish-medium naíonraí”.

A survey of Irish-medium ELC/SAC settings including childminders was undertaken in 2022-2023 to obtain a baseline of the current level of Irish-medium provision in the sector. In addition, a public consultation and a programme of research, including a literature review, took place in 2024. A consultation with children is nearing completion.

In addition to the focus on Irish-medium ELC and SAC services, it is anticipated that the new national plan will also include measures to support English-medium ELC services to work within the updated Aistear early childhood curriculum framework, which was published in December 2024. The updated Aistear includes an aim of supporting young children to have an awareness and appreciation of Gaeilge and our cultural and linguistic heritage.

It is intended that the Plan will be published later in 2025.