Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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709. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if she is aware that, 100 years after the foundation of the State, there is still no statutory provision for childcare services through the medium of Irish, outside of the Gaeltacht; if she accepts that this represents a significant gap in the State's commitment to the Irish language; and the steps she intends to take to ensure that parents who wish to raise their children through Irish have access to Irish-medium childcare nationwide, with particular emphasis on areas designated by the Government as Gaeltacht service towns and Irish-language networks. [56870/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The Department's funding for Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School-Age Childcare (SAC) services is provided on the same basis to both Irish-medium and English-medium services, whether inside or outside Gaeltacht areas. Likewise, the statutory basis for provision - both for regulations (under Part VIIA of the Child Care Act 1991) and for the National Childcare Scheme (under the Childcare Support Act 2018) - is identical for both Irish-medium and English-medium services.

In line with commitments in the 5-year Action Plan for the Irish language, the Department recruited an Irish Language Support Coordinator in 2022 to drive the development of a National Plan and has provided funding since 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 Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht 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, that Department's predecessor with responsibility for the Irish language announced five-year funding to provide a comprehensive support and development service to naíonraí outside of the Gaeltacht, to be administered by Gaeloideachas. Furthermore, the Department of Children, Disability and Equality (DCDE) has provided funding to Gaeloideachas in 2025 to support Irish-medium ELC settings.

Additionally, DCDE is currently 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”.

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 in the coming months.