Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)

I recently read that on a daily basis more people in Ireland now speak one of the Chinese languages than the Irish language. According to reports, approximately 50,000 Chinese live in Ireland who use Mandarin or Cantonese as their first language. Coimisiún na Gaeltachta found that of 90,000 Irish speakers, only approximately half of this number spoke Irish on a regular basis. What has gone wrong? Large resources were spent in developing the Irish language yet this comparison emerges. Ireland, whether we like it, is becoming a multicultural society where in the future languages such as the Chinese ones will be the first language to a greater number than those using the Irish language. I am talking about people who become citizens and whose rights are identical to any other citizen in the State. I flag it on two levels. It must make us reflect on how successful the movement for the revival of the Irish language has been over the history of the State and how much our society is changing and becoming more multicultural.

See this speech in context