Meg #SaveStation19

“Today’s announcement that the DUP will deploy the Petition of Concern in the Assembly this week to block and veto the Irish Language Workforce Planning Bill is scandalous. History tells us that when the DUP is faced with an intense internal crisis, they turn to attacks on the Irish language. In 2016, they removed the cross-community Líofa Gaeltacht bursary to deflect from their RHI scandal. A decade on, and the same DUP Ministers seek to block and deny legitimate Irish Language legislation designed to support the staff and teachers in Irish Medium Schools amidst the amazing growth of that immersive education sector. There is nothing radical about legislating for equitable and equal treatment for Irish speaking schools. The basis for this bill has come directly from schools themselves, who have lobbied tirelessly for a very modest statutory process to ensure they have the staff to meet the demands of their ever-growing classrooms and staffrooms. No party should be supporting this attempt to misuse the Petition of Concern as a sectarian veto against 7,000 Irish speaking students. That will punish every school and every child in the Irish language sector. The Petition of Concern was conceived as a mechanism to protect minorities. Using it in this way is an outrageous abuse of that mechanism. We will support our schools, teachers and young people in anyway we can as the campaign to achieve genuine equality from the state continues.”