Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The truth is that a large proportion of primary teachers in this State's education system do not have fluency in the Irish language. This makes it very difficult for them to pass on fluency to the children they teach. The teaching of Irish in our schools was heavily criticised by school inspectors recently. The point I am trying to make is that while I acknowledge there are Gaelscoileanna, there is a chasm between the demand for such schools and the supply of them. The Government's ability to fill that chasm is extremely poor. It should not be necessary for me to tell a man from County Galway that the language is hanging by a thread. According to a really important research document that was published a number of years ago, the Irish language has 16 years left as a living language. The 20-year strategy is in tatters. The Language Commissioner resigned last week because he is frustrated by the Government's inaction in implementing the law as it applies to the Irish language. He said that when kids leave school, they are met with compulsory English from the State services.

We need to look at what is happening in other countries. The proportion of kids in Wales who receive an all-Welsh education has increased from 18% to 23%. In the 1980s, just 5% of kids in the Basque Country received a Basque-language education, but that figure has now increased to 65%. If the demand for Irish-language education that exists among 25% of this country's parents were met, some 700 schools would change over to Irish-language education straight away. Approximately 150,000 students in the primary sector and 40,000 students in the secondary sector would change over to scoileanna lán-Gaelacha. That would meet the demand. It would be virtually cost-free to educate them in such a manner. The political will to do this is sorely missing, however. Despite its positive rhetoric at times, the Government is unfortunately sitting back and watching the corrosion of the Irish-language sector. It should be proactive in making a major change that would leave a legacy and would guarantee the future of Irish as a spoken language.

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