John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is probably one of the greatest regrets of my life that I do not have any spoken Irish which is why I decided to take part in this debate. There is a phrase with which every child from Kilkenny is familiar and it is probably the most Irish that any of them have, which is, tá áthas ormsa an corn seo a ghlacadh ar son fhoireann Chill Chainnigh. I believe that every child in Kilkenny probably knows that phrase. Like them, I too went to school for 14 years and while it might be debatable and some people would raise serious objections, I do not think I was a particularly bad student in school. It is amazing that after 14 years of education and 14 years of learning Irish I, and the vast majority of students who have gone through our education system, came out of it without the ability to speak our language. That is a shocking indictment of the way Irish is taught. I say this as someone who used to be a teacher in a previous life, albeit a maths teacher.

I can understand Irish. If somebody is speaking who is not from Donegal, I can understand it very clearly, with significant apologies to the Minister of State, Deputy McHugh. I have nothing against Donegal people, it is just that their variation of Irish is more difficult to understand - their variation of English is more difficult to understand as well.

We need to have a serious examination of how so many students can come through an education system which works very well for most other subjects and yet, after 14 years, they cannot speak the language. There are many Irish words that come into the English language in my part of the world, and one of them is "meas". There is no meas placed on Irish in the education system, perhaps because parents and families do not see it as a valuable part of the development of their child and the ability of their child to have a career in the future. However, it is a significant cultural issue, and I say that as someone who can read the language and understand others speaking it, but who cannot converse in it, although I would dearly love to be able to do so. I do not think I would have the patience of Deputy McHugh to go back at this stage to re-learn Irish and I commend him for doing that. However, I believe we have to examine our education system to ensure children who go through it are at least fluent in conversational Irish when they leave school.

I have heard various suggestions, including that there should be two different Irish subjects on the curriculum, one more conversational in nature and one more theoretical. That might be one solution, although I do not pretend to have particular solutions to this subject, which has been discussed at length in this House and in other places over the years. It is worth pointing out that one of the great successes in our education system has been the Gaelscoileanna movement. My first cousin, who is also from County Kilkenny, is principal of a Gaelscoil. He learned Irish and can speak it and teach it, and I believe the fact he went to a Gaelscoil was key for him. We need to resource that movement, particularly into second level, which it has already expanded into but where it will expand further in the future. Most importantly, the new Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Bruton, with whom I have not had this discussion yet but will do so shortly, needs to examine the whole methodology of teaching our national language if it is to survive into the future, which I sincerely hope it does.

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