Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Casfaidh mé ar an mBéarla i gceann tamall beag mar ní fheicim go bhfuil córas aistriúcháin ar fáil anseo.

The Official Languages (Amendment) Act was passed in 2021 and set major challenges for society, but particularly for the public sector. Thus far, I have not seen an urgency from the State or from the various Ministers who need to take quicker action to ensure the State delivers on the commitments in the Act, for example, 20% of all recruits to the public sector being fluent Irish speakers. One way of doing that is dealing with those who are in the public sector already, but the main way is through the education system. As yet, though, there is no urgency from the Department of Education to ensure that there are sufficient places for children to attend Gaelscoileanna and that there is capacity within the secondary school system for them to continue their education through their language of choice. Every year, thousands of young children whose primary level education was through Irish cannot get places in Gaelcholáistí. If this issue were addressed, we would have a cohort of people we may be able to rely on to become teachers or civil servants who are fluent in Irish, thereby addressing the shortfall in the public service's delivery of services through Irish.

There is a range of other issues, but one is the question of how we deal with the challenge of having the Irish language used outside the education system. Some of that is starting to happen because of the Official Languages (Amendment) Act. For example, we are hearing more Irish in advertising, but there needs to be a greater concentration on ensuring that families have the wherewithal to speak Irish outside the education system.

I will make my final point, as this is only a short meeting. The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage has continuously promised us planning guidelines for Gaeltacht areas. They have been delayed time and again. These guidelines would allow families to build homes and live in Gaeltacht areas – young couples who are trying to rear their kids in Irish, people who are trying to modernise their homes and others who are trying to build new homes. This is one of the vital measures required to ensure that Gaeltacht areas survive and thrive. We are asking that the guidelines be published as quickly as possible.