Delay in appointment of Irish language assistants in Cork schools

Thousands of Gaelscoil and Gaelcholáiste pupils in Cork schools will have to wait even longer for help to master the Irish language, due to a delay in approving a plan which would see Cork city gain ‘Gaeltacht service city’ status.

The chief executive of national Irish language organisation Glór na nGael told The Echo that it stands ready to recruit Irish language assistants — or cúntóirí teanga — who would be able to provide language support services to new pupils entering Irish-medium primary schools or those leaving English-medium primary schools to attend a second-level Irish-medium school.

The blockage on appointing the Irish language assistants to the 11 primary-level Gaelscoileanna and five second-level Gaelcholáistí in Cork city is down to a lengthy delay in getting the Gaeltacht service status for Cork.

Cork is named as a possible Gaeltacht service city in legislation which was enacted in 2012, but it took until September last year for a plan which would deliver on this to be compiled under the auspices of the Cork city-based Gael-Taca organisation.

This was submitted to Foras na Gaeilge, the all-island cross-border body, and from there to the Department of the Gaeltacht in February of this year.

The plan, which was completed, contains 160 pages of measures aimed at increasing the level of Irish in the city through improved and more prevalent signage, projects involving businesses, and other iniatives to support schools.

“The language assistants are viewed as a support resource for towns or cities which are recognised as having Gaeltacht service status,” said Glór nan Gael chief executive Lorcán Mac Gabhann.

“We’re available and willing to recruit and administer a scheme for Irish language assistants in Cork city.”

Gael-Taca secretary, and principal of Gaelscoil Pheig Sayers, Adrian Breathnach, said he had contacted the department, which informed him that the plan was now being considered by a language planning unit within the department.

Mr Breathnach said that Gael-Taca had co-ordinated the compilation of the plan and had recruited people to carry out research and to draft the plan with input from the Irish language education sector in the city.

In response to a query from The Echo, a spokesperson for the Department of the Gaeltacht said that they were “actively investigating” the next steps regarding language planning in Cork city at present.

“It is hoped that a decision will be reached about a language plan for the city shortly so progress can be made on different aspects of language development in the city, the matter of language assistants in the schools included,” said the spokesperson.