THE future of Anois is in doubt, following a decision by Bord na Gaeilge to seek tenders for a weekly newspaper in Irish.
The decision follows damning criticism of the State subsidised Irish language newspaper in a confidential report prepared for the board. The report says it does not provide "in any satisfactory way the news and information service for which it gets State support worth £3,500 a week.
Anois was set up 12 years ago by Gael Linn, following the demise of Inniu. It has a weekly circulation of about 3,000 copies, with an additional 1,700 copies distributed to schools.
Late last year, the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, Mr Higgins, transferred responsibility for grants for Irish language publications from his Department to Bord na Gaeilge.
A review group set up by the board described news coverage in Anois as consisting mainly of opinion, including a number of editorials in each issue presented as news reports. It said the lack of "by lines" attributing authorship damaged the newspaper's credibility, the standard of journalism was generally weak, and layout was poor.
Too much material was simply "lifted" from other sources and translated into Irish. The paper lacked a distinctive voice or ethos, the report said.
It expressed concern about staffing structures within the newspaper: a total of 12 staff included two advertising executives, three management staff, two computer staff and a messenger, while the journalistic staff consisted of one editor and one trainee journalist.
Because of its position within a minority linguistic community the newspaper was heavily dependent on the respect that community accorded it, the report adds.
"The community in general has a poor image of it, especially among journalists and writers. The paper depends on their cooperation and should have collaborated with them in a more positive way from the start," it says in Irish. "It seems omissions were made in the payment of writers that caused lasting damage, and the goodwill that was there in the early days was destroyed."
The managing director of Anois Teo, Dr Donall O Morain, said Anois had achieved the highest circulation of any Irish language newspaper.
He told RTE radio he had not been given adequate time to prepare a response to the report, and had not been asked to meet the review group when it was conducting its research. "If we were up on a drugs charge we would have a right to the book of evidence," Dr O Morain said.
The chief executive of Gael Linn, Mr Herman & Briain, said his organisation would have no interest in seeking the contract for the weekly newspaper.