Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

I concur with the Deputy. I do not believe Irish would survive outside the Gaeltacht if the Gaeltacht did not exist, but I also believe, as I have said time and again, that the Gaeltacht could not survive if Irish was not spoken in the rest of the country. I do not see them as being separate and the conditions as different. I have said many times that outside the Gaeltacht, the gaelscoil should be the nucleus of a community of Irish speakers. One of the things that held us up in the past five years was that when Foras na Gaeilge was set up we thought we would see five years of growth and expansion. However, we know what happened; it is history now. Direct rule was reinstituted and everything was put in care and maintenance and mothballed.

The primary responsibility for delivery of policies to do with Irish outside the Gaeltacht is devolved to Foras. I recently had a meeting with the newly appointed chairperson of Foras, Liam Ó Maoilmhichil, and one of the things I emphasised to him was the importance of using the gaelscoil as a nucleus around which a community of people interested in Irish could be built. I have no doubt that when we come to develop our 20-year strategy, each gaelscoil will form a kernel. It would not be that the strategy would be exclusive to people attending these schools, but they would be little nodes out of which we could grow the language. This is a vital methodology for the future.

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