For those with DC in the Irish education system, are there any downsides to my DS being excused from doing Irish?

[SuburbanSpaceperson]

Reposted from Special needs: education for more traffic here.

DS has ASD and is quite difficult and oppositional about school work both in school and at home. I am very persistent about maths and English homework, but I've forgotten all the Irish I've ever knew and can't help him with his Irish homework. I also don't think it's a life skill, and given all the problems he currently has just getting through the day at school it's not worth insisting that he keeps up with it. His teacher has offered to investigate whether he can be withdrawn from Irish (I assume he would need to get permission from the Dept of Ed), and I agreed that it would be helpful if he could give it up.

Are there any downsides? I doubt he's going to be a teacher or a politician, and even if he did want to do that he could probably learn as much on an intensive immersion course for six months as he will be learning in the normal course of his school career.

He's in 3rd class at the moment, so only half way through primary.

No, my dd has one since 3rd class. it's really helpful to have the irish exemption as you can schedule resources hours during the hour every morning of the irish lesson. I have two children with Asd as I'm applying for the second exemption I needed a letter of recommendation from the psychologist and to write a letter to the principal requesting the exemption. It should not affect an application to university there is nui guidelines. There is less homework I find it great. Hth pm anytime

My nephew who has no diagnosis was exempted from Irish a couple of years ago. He had dyslexic tendencies and I know that he had an EP assessment which I assume was used as a basis for applying for the exemption although perhaps that wasn't essential . I don't believe there a&e any downsides. I have a DS with AS and like you when he was at primary I focused on English and maths and didn't worry about too much else. Now he is in secondary and we will be thinking about GCSE options next year. I will be making sure that he has enough subjects that he likes and doesnt find too difficult so that he has enough capacity to focus on the core subjects like English and maths. Irish is a nice to have but not a life skill. Luckily we are in NI although I grew up in the South of Ireland and we don't have this difficulty. Surprisingly DS has turned out to be quite ok at languages but Maths, well that's a whole other story!

Thanks Gorta and Teawaster. He could do with the extra time as he has quite a bit of resource time during the day. He also has a 1 to 1 SNA (for behaviour issues rather than academic) so he could potentially be doing something else with her if he is in the classroom while the Irish lesson is in progress.