Delays deny ‘essential assistance’ for Cork city gaelscoileanna

A decision on approving a plan for the promotion of the Irish language in Cork city will be forthcoming “without delay”, a Department of the Gaeltacht spokesperson has pledged.

According to the secretary of Irish language organisation Gael-Taca, which co-ordinated the drafting of the plan, the Gaelscoileanna and Gaelcholáistí across Cork city have been left without language assistants because of a provision that these can only be employed if there is a functioning language plan for the town or city.

Cork was designated as a Gaeltacht service city for the Cork Gaeltacht communities when the legislation was enacted in 2012, and last February a plan was submitted to the Department of the Gaeltacht for its consideration by local Cork Irish language promotion agency Gael-Taca.

The plan contains 160 pages of measures aimed at increasing the level of Irish in the city.

Adrian Breathnach, Gael-Taca secretary and principal of Gaelscoil Pheig Sayers on Cork’s northside, said that the delay in approving the plan was blocking the education of children attending Irish-medium schools in the city.

“Our children, students in Irish-medium schools in Cork city, have been denied the essential assistance they need in acquiring the Irish language,” he said. 

“It’s been almost a year since the Irish Language Plan for Cork city was published by Gael-Taca, and yet here we stand, with no sign of change.”

A Department of the Gaeltacht spokesperson told The Echo there was “an ongoing discussion regarding the steps that would need to be taken regarding the advancement of the language planning process in Cork city”.

“It is expected that there will be a result to this discussion without delay,” said the spokesperson.

The delay has been raised in the Dáil previously, and on that occasion the then minister of state for the Gaeltacht, Patrick O’Donovan, said that the department had not had a regular funding arrangement with Gael-Taca since 2020 when “governance issues” led to the suspension of that funding.

Responding to a question from Sinn Féin TD Thomas Gould in March last year, Mr O’Donovan said that the department was of the view, following receipt of a funding application the previous September, that a “sufficiently robust structure” was not in place to avoid the reoccurrence of governance issues.

Mr Breathnach pointed out that while the organisation had co-ordinated the compilation of the plan, organisations from across the city had contributed to the 160-page document. He also disputed the department’s assertions regarding governa