Irish-medium primary education: demand and places
In the Department of Education's 2025 Primary School Survey,
— of responses prefer primary education through Irish.
Only — of primary pupils attend a school that teaches all subjects through Irish.
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Unmet demand is the share of the demand for education through Irish that Gaelscoil places do not meet: the survey result wanting education through Irish, minus the share of primary pupils in Gaelscoileanna, divided by the survey result. It is 100% where there is no Gaelscoil, and 0% where the places meet the demand. A Gaelscoil is any primary school the Department lists as teaching all subjects through Irish, in or outside the Gaeltacht; a Gaelcholáiste is the same at post-primary.
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Northern Ireland is shown by council area, with Gaelscoil and Gaelcholáiste provision from the Department of Education (NI) school census, 2025/26. There is no equivalent of the Primary School Survey there, so the survey and unmet-demand maps leave it grey. This part of the map will be updated as data become available.
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Each coloured area is a planning area in this constituency. The black line is the constituency boundary; faded parts of planning areas lie outside it. The figures are for the whole planning area.
Choose a constituency to see how many children there can't get a place in a Gaelscoil, and its other figures.
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Constituency survey figures add up the Department's school-by-school results. The Department withheld results for some schools with few responses, so these are slightly incomplete; the planning-area figures below include every response.
Planning areas in this constituency
| Planning area | Schools here | Pupils here | Want Irish | In Gaelscoil | Unmet demand | Children without a place here |
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"Here" means in this constituency: "3 of 7" schools means 3 of the planning area's 7 primary schools are in it, and the pupils column works the same way. "Want Irish" is the survey result, "In Gaelscoil" the share of primary pupils in Gaelscoileanna, and "Children without a place here" the planning area's estimate shared out by its pupils here. The survey, Gaelscoil and unmet-demand figures are for the whole planning area. A planning area is listed if one of its primary schools, or at least a tenth of its land, is in the constituency.
All constituencies
Sorted by unmet demand, highest first. Choose a column heading to sort by it, or a row to see that constituency on the map.
Irish-medium places have not grown
Share of primary pupils in Gaelscoileanna
Each school year in which the Department published schools' Irish-medium status (not published for 2013/14). Includes Gaeltacht schools that teach all subjects through Irish.
Sources and method
- Schools and pupils: the Department of Education's school-by-school enrolment figures, 2025/26, open schools only, including special schools. "Gaelscoil" and "Gaelcholáiste" here mean a school the Department classifies as teaching all subjects through Irish, including Gaeltacht schools.
- Survey: the Department's 2025 Primary School Survey. Planning-area figures are the Department's results by planning area and include households with children not yet at school. "Wanting education through Irish" is the share of validated responses that chose education through Irish.
- Planning areas: the Department's School Planning Area boundaries (Department of Education GIS, CC BY 4.0). Constituencies: 2023 Dáil constituency boundaries (data.gov.ie), applied to each school's published location. Local authorities: Tailte Éireann's 2024 local authority boundaries (CC BY 4.0); each school counts in the local authority the Department lists it under. Boundaries on the map are simplified.
- Northern Ireland: the Department of Education (NI) school-level enrolment data, 2025/26 (Open Government Licence). Primary pupils are Years 1–7, without nursery and reception classes; Irish-medium units in English-medium schools are not included. Council areas: © EuroGeographics for the administrative boundaries (Eurostat GISCO).
- Unmet demand compares two shares and does not by itself count how many new places are needed. Small planning areas have few responses and wide margins of error.