Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit as a bheith anseo inniu. An rud atá mé ag plé inniu ná an gá stádas DEIS a bhronnadh ar Ghaelscoil Lir i dTeach an Sagard atá i mo dháilcheantar féin. An fáth atá mé ag cur na ceiste seo faoi bhráid na Dála ná go bhfuil leibhéal suntasach tithíochta socheacnamaíocha agus éagsúlachta ag baint leis an scoil. Tá an scoil féin ag freastal ar theaghlaigh atá ag brath ar íocaíochtaí leasadh shóisialaigh de réir mar atá le feiceáil ó innéacs pobal. Tá an-chuid de na daltaí ó chúlraí imirce agus ilteangacha agus tá cuid mhór acu ag cur fúthu san ionad IPAS in aice na scoile. Tá go leor riachtanaisí breise oideachais le sonrú sa scoil freisin. Mar Ghaelscoil, tá an Ghaelscoil féin ag déanamh freastal ar go leor teaghlaigh nach bhfuil an Ghaeilge mar theanga sa bhaile acu, agus fiú amháin nach bhfuil Béarla ann. Is léir go bhfuil páistí sa scoil seo a bhfuil ag labhairt as Gaeilge nach bhfuil cumas acu sa Bhéarla, rud atá an-spéisiúil agus iontach ann féin, ach tá riachtanais ag an scoil a bhfuil freastal ag teastáil orthu. Níl rochtain ag an scoil ar a leithéid de chlár críochnaithe scoile, níl nasc idir an scoil agus an baile, agus níl fáil aige ach oiread ar a leithéid de dheontas le cúntóir a fhostú sa scoil. The Topical Issue I raise today relates to Gaelscoil Lir, which is a growing school in my constituency based in Saggart-Citywest. To be clear, I am a member of its board of management. The reason I raise for Gaelscoil Lir to be considered for DEIS status is the school was established in the 2021-22 school year. It missed out on the immediate adjudication and assessment of a school for inclusion in the DEIS programme. If we look at the overall picture of the school itself, it is one that has the needs add profile to justify the bestowing of DEIS status on it. There are families from low-income backgrounds whose children attend the school. Social welfare is the only source of income for a number of those families, there is a high prevalence of special educational needs in the school and there are two special classes in a student body of under 100 students. In and of itself, this is quite remarkable and shows the school staff’s commitment to providing high level special education. A number of the students attending are from backgrounds where Ireland is not their country of birth. Many of them are also living in the IPAS centre immediately adjacent to the school. One of the unique and very special things about Gaelscoil Lir is it has a number of students who speak Irish who cannot speak English. They have their native language from home or their own country and they now have proficiency in our native tongue, which is a beautiful thing to learn. The other side of that, however, is this is a school that has all of these needs but does not have access to things like the home school liaison programme or the school completion programme and is not able to employ a caretaker because of the size of its ancillary grant. Were we to have a serious debate about the need to encourage and ensure Irish-medium education; something I am very passionate about, we would also need to make sure Irish-medium education is available to all people of all backgrounds. A support we in Fianna Fáil are rightly proud of is the expansion of the DEIS programme and giving children the educational opportunities they need. I would seriously consider the need to review Gaelscoil Lir’s status and make allowance for the fact that given its student population, with many students residing in the IPAS centre, and given the significant areas of deprivation adjacent to it, there is an argument to consider DEIS status for Gaelscoil Lir. I wholeheartedly urge that as a consideration today.

Sentiment score: 0.19

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit as an freagra sin. I thank the Minister of State for taking this Topical Issue. I am a little disappointed the response did not refer to Gaelscoil Lir and that is something I will raise with the Department, given that was the particular schooled I raised in this instance. I draw attention to the fact that Gaelscoil Lir is quite unique in where it is located. It is located beside an IPAS centre and has a diversity of student backgrounds that have higher levels of special educational needs. It requires access to a home school liaison. It has scope to be one of the fastest growing schools in the Saggart-Citywest area and crucially, and this is something I have a particular interest in, it is also securing the language rights of families who want to send their children to an Irish-medium school. That is something we have to take seriously. I welcome the fact that DEIS strategy is being reviewed at the moment and will identify unique pockets of disadvantage but I also heartily encourage the Department and the Minister to seriously consider how the socioeconomic gaps that exist in areas around the country are also reflected for schools with Irish-medium education as well. Sometimes there is an assumption that because a Gaelscoil is a Gaelscoil, it does not need access to support, the school completion programme or the home school liaison programme. We have to disabuse ourselves of that notion because that is not true. Tá an-obair ar siúl ag foireann Ghaelscoil Lir. Tá an-dúshlán á shárú aici. An rud atá mise ag iarraidh sa Teach seo inniu ná go mbeidh tacaíocht ar fáil d’fhoireann, do thuismitheoirí agus do phobal scoile Gaelscoil Lir chun go mbeidh siad in ann freastal ar na riachtanais atá acu agus go mbeidh siad in ann freastal ar na daltaí atá ag dul ag an scoil sin. Tá mé ag iarraidh go mbeidh gach aon deis ag gach aon dalta sa scoil sin gach rud gur féidir leo a bhaint amach sa saol sa todhchaí agus go mbeidh an Stát ag tacú leo é sin a dhéanamh.

Sentiment score: -0.01