Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)

I agree with the point made by Deputy Enright. If one does 11 years of compulsory Irish, one is in generally left with the cúpla focal. Some 38% of people say they can speak Irish, but figures show that only 3% speak it daily or 5% weekly. This indicates an endemic problem with the teaching of Irish in schools. The Green Party does not support any moves to take away the compulsory element of Irish and believes it is an intrinsic part of our culture and national identity. It is important, particularly as we become a more multicultural society, to know where we came from and what we are.

However, it is one thing to publish this Bill to recognise the international context and still try to preserve Irish at third and fourth level, but when the majority of people who speak Irish daily happen to be primary schoolchildren, the majority of adults who speak Irish daily are civil servants and teachers and only a third of people in Gaeltacht areas speak Irish daily, there is a problem. We need a serious root and branch review of how Irish is taught and why a love of Irish is not engendered by the time people reach second level.

At the end of the leaving certificate, my French was of exactly the same standard as my Irish. I got a B in both honours examinations but while I can understand every word the Minister says in Irish, I cannot come up with the parliamentary terms. That is after 11 years of being taught Irish in the system, and everyone else has the same difficulty. If a person's French, German or Spanish is better after half the time spent, we must look at what we are doing in our primary schools to foster a love of Irish and ensure people are in a position to build on the language.

At some stage, the combination of the written and oral is lost to students. That may happen when students leave primary school and are suddenly confronted with a different way of teaching Irish or when they get to second year and start questioning the value of the language. One way or another, whether it involves the value of Irish, the love of it or the mechanisms of teaching it, a problem exists. I ask the Minister, in consultation with the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, to come up with something new in terms of how Irish is taught. It should be compulsory. It is part of what we are, and I do not mean that as a cliché. If we want people moving on to third level who are proficient in the language, that recognition would do much more to foster the language in a long-term manner than any protective, continuing amendments in this Bill. My colleagues and I support this Bill, but something needs to be done at the basic level.

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