Vol. 439 No. 3
135 Mr. Haughey asked the Minister for Education the circumstances in which an exemption from the study of Irish is granted; and if she will consider a case of a person (details supplied) in Dublin 9 which was submitted to her.
Rule 46 of the Rules and Programme for Secondary Schools provides that a child whose primary education up to 11 years of age was received in Northern Ireland or outside Ireland may be allowed to substitute any other subject from the list of approved subjects for Irish so as to make up the minimum number of subjects necessary to constitute an approved course.
Otherwise, all pupils in primary and post-primary schools are required to study Irish.
I have considered the case in question and as the pupil was enrolled in a national school before her tenth birthday she does not come under the terms of the rule nor would an exemption be granted under the terms of the revised rule which will be circularised to all schools shortly.
