{"id":17360,"date":"2026-04-22T11:50:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T10:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/?p=17360"},"modified":"2026-04-22T11:50:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T10:50:17","slug":"minister-for-education-must-engage-with-demand-for-gaelcholaisti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/minister-for-education-must-engage-with-demand-for-gaelcholaisti\/","title":{"rendered":"Minister for Education must engage with demand for gaelchol\u00e1ist\u00ed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Government is ignoring the growing demand for the creation of gaelscoileanna and gaelchol\u00e1ist\u00ed across Ireland, according to Social Democrats education spokesperson Jen Cummins.<\/p>\n<p>Deputy Cummins said:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are 11 counties with no gaelchol\u00e1ist\u00ed, no option for parents or their children to receive an education in their native language.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMore than 50% of the Department of Education\u2019s school planning areas have no gaelscoil, and more than 90% of them have no gaelchol\u00e1iste.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Department has failed to open up lines of communication between Irish language communities around the country, including those who wish for their children to learn, and those who make the decisions regarding the establishment of gaelchol\u00e1ist\u00ed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know from interacting with my constituents that the demand is there for the creation of more gaelscoileanna and gaelchol\u00e1ist\u00ed, yet there is no official channel for them to communicate this to the Department, who would rather not hear about their wants and needs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI stand Imeasc in their pursuit of language equality in education and will be advocating for the enshrinement of all-Irish education in the legislation which structures our education system.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlmost half of all adults would choose an all-irish education for their children if it was available to them. We must endeavour to make this a reality in all localities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Minister for Education must listen to Imeasc\u2019s concerns and immediately establish a forum for parents and students to express their desire for an all-Irish education in communities across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>April 22nd, 2026<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Government is ignoring the growing demand for the creation of gaelscoileanna and gaelchol\u00e1ist\u00ed across Ireland, according to Social Democrats education spokesperson Jen Cummins. Deputy Cummins said: \u201cThere are 11 counties with no gaelchol\u00e1ist\u00ed, no option for parents or their children to receive an education in their native language. \u201cMore than 50% of the Department [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11586,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[218,403,581,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-gaeilge","category-jen-cummins","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Minister for Education must engage with demand for gaelchol\u00e1ist\u00ed - Social Democrats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/minister-for-education-must-engage-with-demand-for-gaelcholaisti\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"ga_IE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Minister for Education must engage with demand for gaelchol\u00e1ist\u00ed - Social Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Government is ignoring the growing demand for the creation of gaelscoileanna and gaelchol\u00e1ist\u00ed across Ireland, according to Social Democrats education spokesperson Jen Cummins. 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