Gaeltacht Committee wants Irish promoted ‘more effectively’

‘Respect and affection’ for Irish – Labhrás Ó Murchú

Labhrás Ó Murchú. photo: frank miller/the irish times
Labhrás Ó Murchú. photo: frank miller/the irish times

The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht published its Report on the General Scheme of the Official Languages (Amendment) Bill 2014 today.

The Leas-Chathaoirleach of the Sub-Committee on the 20 Year Strategy for the Irish Language 2010–2030 and Related Matters, Senator Labhrás Ó Murchú said: “This report recommends that at least 10 per cent of public workers in public service bodies should be fully proficient in Irish and should be willing, and indeed eager, to carry out their duties and engage with the public through Irish. We believe that this is an achievable objective and that there is, as indicated by the 2011 census returns, a clear demand for it among the Irish people.”

He said that people had “a great respect and affection for the Irish language” and that “the State and the Government have a duty to reciprocate and facilitate this goodwill”.

Among the main recommendations were that “public bodies should provide all of their services through Irish and should ensure they have adequate staff with the ability to do so”.

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The report also suggested that the Language Commissioner should be involved in the process of withdrawing notices requiring public bodies to prepare and in reviewing public language schemes and in respect of making, amending or revoking place names; that the maximum period during which a public language scheme remains in force should be four years and not seven and that no public body should be excluded from the Official Languages legislation for all its activities and where certain activities are excluded, this should be unavoidable, subject to conditions and for a given period of time only.

Conradh na Gaeilge have welcomed the report. President of the group, Mr Cóilín Ó Cearbhaill, said they were very happy with the proposal that 10 per cent of all civil servants in each department should speak Irish and that official documents should be published in Irish and English, side by side.

However, the organisation also suggested that Ministers must send any new policy or Bill to the Language Commissioner to ensure that no harm would be done to the language. They also said that the names of all new public companies should be in Irish and that “the system of language schemes, which has not been working effectively since it was introduced, should be abolished in public companies and departments, and replaced by a system of standards, similar to what has been done in Wales recently. This would guarantee the range and standards of service in Irish that citizens can expect from the State”.