Luke Flanagan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am also missing stuff by being here. This has to be taken up as a serious issue. The impediment is that the vast majority of those who teach learn easily from books without immersion. This needs to be taken into account if Ms Ní Ghallchóir wants the Irish language to survive. Otherwise we will put a massive amount of resources for 13 years into teaching pupils, including my kids. At the age of ten years, my oldest daughter, in spite of the fact that I try to be positive about learning Irish, hates the language because of the way it is taught to her, and she is not in a house in which people are negative about learning Irish. If Ms Ní Ghallchóir is serious about ensuring the future of the language, I ask her to take this into account. We do not all learn from books. Many - I suggest the majority - learn everything in life from practice, not from a book. If the Irish language is to survive, Údarás na Gaeltachta must succeed in what it is doing and keep alive the place where people like me can go and learn the language. Otherwise it is finished.