Mr. Aodán Mac Póilín:

I will follow on from what Ms Muller has said, but from a slightly different angle. Our understanding is that some time in the summer a new version of the strategy will be published. Consultations are taking place at the moment with different Departments in terms of the implications. This second version of the draft strategy will then have to go to the Executive for consideration because this is an Executive strategy rather than in internal departmental strategy. Once it goes to the Executive it will be eviscerated because an Irish language strategy or an Irish language act has the same effect on the politics of Northern Ireland as taking down the Union flag from City Hall. This is what we are facing into.

I must point out that I praised the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure for being the first institution in Northern Ireland to develop an Irish language strategy, but there are flaws in it. One of the flaws is the lack of consideration of the cross-community perspective and the other one is the fact that a lot of the strategy is predicated on an Irish language act but such an act is not going to happen. We cannot wait to develop a strategy until a language act is in place. The actions outlined in one and a half chapters of the strategy require an Irish language act in order to be implemented. This is a real problem.

My analysis is that it is something that the Minister cannot do because the Minister has to pursue both the language act and the strategy but these will not happen within the same time scale. That is why I am proposing a plan B. The Minister cannot make progress because she is being pulled in two different directions. More flexibility is required. There are also genuine flaws in the strategy vis-à-vis its interpretation of what language planning involves. I do not think the strategy takes that issue on board fully.

Another issue of concern is the general perception of the language situation in Northern Ireland. We have a very strong, coherent and fairly effective language revival movement or community. I started learning Irish in 1968 and the language has never been as healthy as it is now. I used to know every Irish speaker in Belfast but now, every day, I meet new speakers whom I have not met before. It is blooming. I wish to put this in the political and social context. In the last census, 10.6% of the population claimed a knowledge of the Irish language. As committee members will know, if one has only a tiny bit of Irish, one cannot say one has no knowledge of the language. In other words, there is a spectrum of knowledge there. We have no analysis of where people are in terms of fluency. The figures are useless in that regard but they are useful in one way because they allow for a sectarian analysis. In that context, 21% of Catholics claim to have a knowledge of Irish, while only 1% of Protestants do. Given the high correlation between political identity and religious identity in Northern Ireland, that basically means what we all know anyway, namely that the language is associated with, in both fact and public perception, the Catholic/Nationalist community. I published Pádraig Ó Snodaigh's important book, Hidden Ulster, Protestants and the Irish Language, which was the first major study of the issue of Protestant Irish language identity, which is not necessarily a political identity. It was a very important book which has been followed up by books by Rory Blaney on the Presbyterian tradition and Dr. Ian Malcolm, among others.

There is a big divide in terms of knowledge of Irish between the two communities. The situation in the North cannot be compared to that in the South. Everybody in the South is taught Irish - possibly badly - for 14 years. Everybody in the South has had exposure to Irish and if they see the word t-e-a-c-h, they know it might mean teach - the Irish word for house - as opposed to teach. In Northern Ireland hardly anybody studies Irish at school and then, generally speaking, unless they are attending an Irish-medium school, they only study it at second level. It is almost entirely confined to the Catholic population and the Catholic school system and even then, it is not universal. The level of exposure to Irish through the education system is massively different. There are two major differences between the two societies. First, there is the fact that the language is deeply divisive along the political/religious identity spectrum and second, very few people in the North have had exposure to it. We have a very vibrant but very small Irish language community.

I was fascinated by the discussion earlier between Deputies Feighan, Flanagan and Senator Brennan from which I noted an ambivalence but also a deep sense of goodwill towards the language. They suggested that everybody loves the language but hated having to study it at school. I know that does not apply to everybody, but it certainly applies to many. That is very different to the situation in Northern Ireland. The hostility towards the language in the Republic cannot be compared to the hostility in Northern Ireland. The hostility in the South comes from some bad experiences at school but in the North, the hostility comes from a sense that the language is designed to undercut the society. That is the perception and that is what we have to work against. However, campaigning for an Irish language act will intensify that hostility. If we had an act in place, it would make the situation better. Once there is a support structure in place - Jim's analysis is totally correct in this regard - the Unionist parties will oppose it initially, then learn to live with it and discover that the sky does not fall. If we had a good Irish language act it would be very good for our society. However, getting there could do an awful lot of damage. I do not know how we will deal with that dilemma. We must be very careful because there is no simplistic answer to this. Well, actually, there is - Westminster should pass an Irish language act. If an Irish language act emanated from Westminster, everything would be far better. Failing that, it will be a hot potato that will make the whole issue of the Irish language worse than it currently is.