An aonad has been established in the school referred to by the Deputy since 2006 to provide education through Irish at junior cycle. In the case of the school in question, my Department has provided resources in response to demonstrated demand and will continue to review whether the level of demand is sufficient to warrant the resources that have been provided.
In relation to the provision of Irish medium education at senior cycle level in this school, my Department will continue to review the situation. A demonstrated and consistent pattern of a reasonable level of demand for Irish medium education at junior cycle is a clear indicator of whether there will be a sufficient potential intake to an aonad at senior cycle level to warrant the allocation of the necessary resources to such an aonad. Although this school has had an aonad for the junior cycle since 2006, the number of students attending the aonad at junior cycle is very small. In this context there is currently not a reasonable number of students participating in the aonad and therefore its extension to Senior Cycle would not be a viable option.
