Pat Carey (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

Scéim labhairt na Gaeilge was first introduced in 1935 when an annual grant was available to each school-going child for the purpose of encouraging households in the Gaeltacht to use Irish as their everyday language.

The scheme in its current form is in operation since 1993. While it is a mechanism for supporting and promoting Irish as a living household and community language in the Gaeltacht, it can also be seen as representing Government support for the Gaeltacht at a time when the language is facing a major threat due to a number of different factors which have been identified in the linguistic study on the use of Irish in the Gaeltacht. The scheme also provides data on the strength of the language in the various Gaeltacht regions.

A review of the scheme was carried out in 2003-04 and some basic changes to make it more relevant to today's needs were recommended. However, because of the cost involved, these were not proceeded with at the time.

As I indicated, the draft 20 year strategy for Irish envisages significant changes to the definition of the Gaeltacht and the need for significant emphasis in the future on language planning and socio-linguistic interventions. I anticipate that the effectiveness of scéim labhairt na Gaeilge and other Gaeltacht and Irish language schemes will fall to be considered in that context at the appropriate time.

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