AN Irish language youth organisation has written to the leader of the UUP, Jon Burrows, urging him not to sign the DUP's Petition of Concern which would block legislation on Irish-medium education.
Burrows sits on Stormont's Education Committee and said yesterday that he would be minded to support the DUP on the matter and that it "has merit".
DUP leader Gavin Robinson said the party would submit a Petition of Concern today regarding Sinn Féin's's Irish-medium Education Workforce Plan Bill. Mr Robinson said that the DUP understood that the petition would receive the support of other unionists. Any petition requires the signatures of 30 members of the Assembly from at least two parties. The DUP needs the support of the UUP to kill off the legislation.
The DUP move is part of its campaign against Sinn Féin after party members took part in a protest last month on the Garvaghy Road which stopped Orangemen from marching through the nationalist district of Portadown.
Fóram na nÓg submitted evidence to the Education Committee in October on the needs of the Irish-medium youth sector. They also presented An Cháirt Óige, a youth charter designed by young people within the sector.
Fóram have described the proposed Bill as "narrow in scope" but asking "one thing of the Department of Education, that is to prepare a workforce plan for Irish-medium education".
"For our community, it matters a great deal" they say.
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Detailing their work with thousands of young people across the sector, the group say that, "Keeping pace with that growth depends on having enough teachers and youth workers who can work through Irish, with both planned together."
"This Bill gives those young people a better chance of learning and growing up through their own language, now and for the thousands coming up behind them through Irish-medium schools."
They say that they "expect a majority of MLAs to vote for the Bill," and they have asked "Ulster Unionist Party to be among them".
"If the party cannot support it, we ask that UUP members do not sign any Petition of Concern to stop it," they continue.
"We understand the DUP intends to seek one for reasons tied to its own party politics. The young people we work with should not pay the price for that, and a Petition of Concern would do serious damage to the Irish-medium education sector."
The letter refers to the UUP's decision in March 2022 not to sign a Petition of Concern against the Integrated Education Bill, despite the fact they opposed it. At the time, the UUP said they "cannot support a Petition of Concern (PoC) because it is designed to protect minorities or single identity groups and has failed to meet that test in this case. Therefore its use would have been an abuse of the democratic process."
"Irish-medium education is clearly a minority sector within our education system, and the same test applies here," say Fóram na nÓg.
"As youth workers, and as advocates for the children and young people in Irish-medium education, we believe this decision should rest with a majority of elected members. Using a Petition of Concern to block it would override that majority, and would use the mechanism for something it was never meant to do.
"We would ask you to give this serious consideration. Your support, or at the very least your commitment not to block the Bill, would mean a great deal to our young people," the letter concludes.
The letter is signed by Fóram na nÓg's Director, Orliath Mhic Leannáin.
