Fine Gael TDs are to come under pressure from Conradh na Gaeilge to oppose party leader Enda Kenny's proposal to end compulsory Irish education for Leaving Certificate students.
Last night, the president of Conradh na Gaeilge, Daithi MacChartaigh described Mr Kenny's move "as very odd" and said it "doesn't bear up well to scrutiny".
Speaking in Cork on Friday night, Mr Kenny had said the Irish curriculum is failing students and helping to destroy the language. Students should learn Irish as a spoken language in primary and post-primary schools, with the emphasis on oral rather than written examinations.
However, students should also be able to stop studying Irish after Junior Certificate if they are not interested in it.
Minister for Education Mary Hanafin last night said she has already asked curriculum experts to examine ways to encourage the oral use of Irish.
The marks for the Leaving Certificate, she said, should be split 50/50 between the written and oral exam papers - but this could not be done until greater emphasis was put on oral teaching earlier in the system.
"This would involve a sea-change for teachers. It would be unfair to have that kind of split when there isn't an oral exam in the Junior Cert. It would be too high stakes," she told The Irish Times.
Criticising Mr Kenny, Mr MacChartaigh said his organisation wanted students to leave school proficient in three languages.
"A lot of Fine Gael people are climbing the walls about this. They are very upset," he claimed.
Conradh na Gaeilge would begin to lobby Fine Gael TDs, senators and councillors from today to oppose the proposal.
"The logical thing is to look at the curriculum and the way it is taught, but he has pre-empted this by saying that he wants to end compulsion. I accept Enda Kenny's bona fides. I accept that he is genuinely motivated. Hopefully, he will accept that this is ill-conceived. We are happy to argue this out with him," said Mr MacChartaigh.
Ms Hanafin said Fine Gael's action comes after the party's support for the campaign to have Irish recognised as a working European Union language.
Last night, Mr Kenny said he intends to force a full Dáil debate on the teaching of the language quickly. "The language has been taught by compulsion for 75 years and it has not worked as a political tool to make it the language of the people. We are spending €500 million on this every year and it is not working," he said.
Only three out of 10 students who study Irish for the Leaving Certificate attempt the higher level paper - a figure significantly lower than all other languages on the curriculum.
