Action Plan for Irish in English-Medium Schools

The Department of Education and Youth is delighted to publish this Action Plan for Irish in English-Medium Schools to support the teaching and learning of Irish in primary and post-primary schools that teach through English. The action plan will be implemented within a two-year period, 2025 to 2027.

It will support primary and post-primary schools in implementing existing curriculum specifications to provide better learning experiences of Irish and increase the use of Irish among children and young people. In particular, it will support the development of pupils’/students’ oral language skills.

The action plan is informed by extensive consultation at national and school levels, and it is also informed by research and approaches to language planning for minority languages in other jurisdictions.

The action plan sets out actions under four pillars:

• Fostering positive attitudes towards Irish
• Increasing the use of Irish
• Supporting access by all children and young people to learning Irish
• Integrating supports for Irish.

The action plan is available at the following link:

An extensive national consultation informed the development of the action plan. The consultation involved almost 700 participants, including 200 national stakeholders and over 500 people at school-level (children, young people, teachers, school leaders and parents). Over half of participants in the consultation at school level were children and young people.

Two reports on the consultation, prepared by SEALBHÚ, Dublin City University, are available at the following links:

Further information is available at agsmb@education.gov.ie