Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 19 February 2026
505. Deputy Carol Nolan asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the initiatives to enhance integration between Irish-language early childhood services and the broader education system, including collaborations with primary schools via programs like Mo Scéal and support for children with additional needs through schemes like AIM or Better Start; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13818/26]
View answerThe Department is working in collaboration with other relevant Departments and Agencies to develop a national plan to further the development of Irish language provision in the Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School-Age Childcare (SAC) sector. The development of such a plan is a commitment in the 5-Year Action Plan for the Irish Language.
The national plan is expected to support the delivery of two commitments in First 5 (the Whole-of-Government Strategy for Babies, Young Children and their Families): “Introduce measures to ensure that children in Gaeltacht areas have access to Irish-medium ELC provision” and “Develop mechanisms to provide Irish-language supports to ELC provision where there are high proportions of children who are learning through the medium of Irish”.
The plan is also expected to support the delivery of commitments in the Programme for Government to: “Support naíonraí and creches to ensure early education access in Gaeltacht communities and beyond” and “Plan the development of State-led facilities in tandem with the school building programme, including Irish-medium naíonraí”.
In addition to the focus on the provision of Irish-medium ELC and SAC services, it is anticipated that the new national plan will also include measures to support English-medium ELC services to work within the updated Aistear early childhood curriculum framework, which was published in December 2024. The updated Aistear includes an aim of supporting young children to have an awareness and appreciation of Gaeilge and our cultural and linguistic heritage.
It is intended that the Plan and associated consultation reports will be published in the coming months.
The Department also sits on relevant advisory groups with the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht and the Department of Education and Youth and will use these to ensure opportunities are used to create synergies between the forthcoming national plan and other Departments' policies and action plans to support the promotion of the Irish language across government.
The Department of Education and Youth's Policy on Gaeltacht Education 2017-2022 aims to strengthen early years educational provision and to consolidate the supports provided for early years settings in the Gaeltacht. A key action arising from that Policy was the publication in 2021 of a Guide for Gaeltacht Primary Schools: Strengthening Links between Primary Schools and Early Learning and Care (ELC) Settings - A Collaborative Approach to Promoting the Use of Irish.
The Gaeltacht School Recognition Scheme was introduced to support schools in achieving language-based criteria for immersion education. One of the main criteria is to establish useful and mutually beneficial language and cultural links with local Irish-medium early learning and care settings (naíonraí). The purpose of the link is also to facilitate a positive transition for children from the naíonra to the primary school.
The Department of Education and Youth published the Policy for Irish-Medium Education outside of the Gaeltacht and the Action Plan for Irish in English-Medium Schools in November 2025. The actions that will be implemented under DCDE’s national plan and these policies will support the continuity of children’s acquisition of Irish from the early years onwards.
The Department supports the inclusion of children through the Access and Inclusion Model (AIM). AIM is a model of supports designed to ensure that children with disabilities can access the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme. AIM is a child-centred model, involving seven levels of progressive support, moving from the universal to the targeted, based on the needs of the child and the pre-school setting. A core feature and strength of AIM is that it does not require a diagnosis. Instead, resources are allocated based on a child’s individual needs.
Better Start has a number of early years specialists employed who are proficient in Irish as a first or bi-lingual language and a number of others can converse with children in Irish-Medium settings through Irish at a more basic level. In addition, as part of commitments in the 5 Year Action Plan for the Irish Language, the Department have funded an Irish language Early Years Specialist and an Irish language Team Leader in Better Start.
Better Start are currently running a number of online webinars for Irish-medium ELC settings and for English-medium settings to support introducing Irish into their daily routine. There is currently an expression for interest open for Content Language and Integrated Learning (CLIL) support in relation to Irish within English-medium ELC settings.
