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Establishing a New School

If there isn’t a school in your area, there may be a local campaign to establish one. Gaeloideachas is working with founding committees around the country to ensure that Irish-medium education will be available as a choice to pupils and their parents in their local area. These founding committees are community groups who have come together because there is a need and a demand for Irish-medium education in their local area. Further information on their campaigns is available from our development officers, contact us on 01 8535195 or eolas@gaeloideachas.ie.  If there is no founding committee active in your area and you’re interested in setting one up, contact us and we’ll help.

The Department of Education & Skills Process for the Establishment of New Schools

On June 27th 2011 the Department of Education & Skills published new arrangements for patronage of new schools. The process, and the difficulty it presents in terms of catering for demand, is outlined below:

  1. The Department identifies the areas in which additional school provision is needed, based on demographics and the ability of the existing schools to cater for the population. The language and religious ethos of the current schools is not a factor at this stage of the process; e.g. if there is a demand for a particular type of school but there are still spaces available in the existing schools in the area, the establishment of a new school will not be considered. In practical terms, this often means that there is no opportunity to establish an Irish-medium school if the local schools have free space, even if none of those schools are Irish-medium schools.
  2. If the Department decides that the establishment of a new school is necessary, patronage bodies (school management bodies, e.g. An Foras Pátrúnachta, Educate Together, Education and Training Boards, religious organisations) are invited to make applications for the patronage of the new school.
  3. Patrons must consult with the local community before making their application, e.g. organise public meetings, obtain expressions of interest from parents to support the establishment of a particular type of school for the area.
  4. The Department evaluates the applications and the patronage of the new school is announced.

Further information, and the form to express an interest in a particular model of patronage, is available on the Department’s website: https://patronage.education.gov.ie/

The Department of Education & Skills does not recognise any application for the establishment of a new school outside this process, nor will it grant recognition to any school established outside it. Committees around the country are campaigning for the establishment of Irish-medium schools in areas not prioritised by the Department and Gaeloideachas provides them with support and guidance. Further information on their campaigns is available from our development officers, contact us on 01 8535195 or eolas@gaeloideachas.ie.