Five Gaelscoils, located in Dublin 2, 4, 6, and 8 school area, are calling on the Minister of Education, Norma Foley, TD to make the decision, without further delay or any more excuses, to establish a Gaelcholáiste in our school area. There is not so much as one Gaelcholáiste in the school area although there are 200,000 people living in this school area.
100+ pupils (from junior infants to 6th class) came to Leinster House today, Wednesday, 26th of April, at 11:00 calling for a Gaelcholáiste for the school area where these five Gaelscoils: Scoil Bhríde; Gaelscoil Lios na nÓg; Bunscoil Synge; Gaelscoil Eoin and Gaelscoil Inse Chór are located. Each pupil represented 1,000 people from the Dublin 2468 area or the Tralee area. They had coloured paper in their hands in the colours of Dublin or Kerry. There was also a performance of songs from the pupils.
Victoria McQuaid, Principal of Bunscoil Synge said:
“Our five Gaelscoils, located in Dublin 2, 4, 6, and 8 school area, are calling on the Minister of Education, Norma Foley, TD to make the decision, without further delay or any more excuses, to establish a Gaelcholáiste in our school area. There is not so much as one Gaelcholáiste in the school area although there are 200,000 people living in this school area.
Whilst our campaign is very happy for Tralee, with a population of 23,000, that they have recently opened a new purpose-built building for their second level Irish medium school, we can’t understand how this Government is denying 200,000 people in the Dublin 2468 area the same access to Irish medium education in our own school area.
It is hugely frustrating to us in our schools that we make huge progress with the pupils during their time with us ensuring that they are educated bilingually but then there is no second level Irish medium school in our school area for them to attend.”
Clare Kavanagh, a parent with a child in Scoil Bhríde said:
“As a parent, I want my child and the other children of the schools taking part in the campaign to be able to access a Gaelcholáiste in our school area. The Minister of Education, Norma Foley, has an opportunity to make a decision that would serve a large number of students and families in our school area and I, on behalf of my children and other parents in this school district, am asking her to act to provide fairness for us.
The Government states in the Programme for Government that they will establish Gaelcholáistí if there is demand for such. We believe that our 5 Gaelscoils coming together and campaigning on this issue shows clearly that there is more than sufficient demand from parents in our area.”
More information for parents here.
