Initiatives to ensure that people in the Gaeltacht have Irish language access to tax, social welfare, agricultural and local authority services were announced by the Minister of State for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands in Westport, Co Mayo, yesterday.
"It is time for a radical review and concerted action before the Gaeltacht is destroyed by the total hypocrisy of the way it is treated," Mr Eamon O Cuiv said.
The new moves include plans for a "one-stop shop" in each of the Gaeltacht areas which will deal in Irish with all State services, such as drawing the dole and paying taxes.
"There is a total contradiction between paying a child or their parents £200 for speaking Irish and then refusing to provide even a nurse or a doctor in the local hospital who can communicate with that child in Irish."
He said it did not make sense to pay grants to people from Gaeltacht areas for speaking the Irish language and at the same time make it virtually impossible for these same people to avail of basic services such as tax, social welfare, agricultural and local authority services through Irish.
"It is a total denial of human rights to the Gaeltacht people and a total contradiction of stated Government policy to force old people from the Gaeltacht who know very little English into nursing homes far away from the Gaeltacht where nobody is available to treat them professionally through the medium of Irish," Mr O Cuiv said.
He also announced that work had started on the Language Bill which would have special provision for Gaeltacht areas. He said this was the first time there would be a clear legal obligation on State agencies and others in relation to the provision of Irish-language services in the Gaeltacht.
Mr O Cuiv outlined the agenda for the new Inter Departmental Committee on the Gaeltacht, the Irish language and the islands. Among the issues to be examined, he said, were the services which are provided in English and the action needed to ensure that these were now conducted through the medium of Irish.
It would also consider what action should be taken by Departments to ensure that the Gaeltacht was taken into account in all departmental planning that included these areas and to ensure that "Gaeltacht proofing" would become the norm.
The committee would also look at ways to ensure, in the context of decentralisation and localisation, that as many functions as possible would be transferred to specific Gaeltacht institutions.