Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Irish language community organisations around the country are promoting the language on the ground on a daily basis. They organise classes, provide speaking opportunities for all levels and work with schools, etc. In short, they have stood up to do a job the State has never been seriously interested in doing and has long forgone, that is, to reinstate Gaeilge as a spoken language of Ireland. Many people want more opportunities to speak the language and those who have Irish want opportunities and supports to bring up their children as Gaeilge.

Funding for this work, as the Minister said, is provided through Foras na Gaeilge's scéim forbartha líonraí Gaeilge and among the community groups on the ground there is an evident need to reopen the scheme, to increase the funding for Foras na Gaeilge and to channel it into the community groups. On a previous occasion when I raised the issue, the Minister of State, Deputy Patrick O'Donovan took the question and correctly pointed to the absence of the assembly in locking funds for these groups through Foras na Teanga on a North-South basis and through Foras na Gaeilge, which administers the funds for the community groups. Will the Minister assure us that her Department is now undertaking efforts to ensure additional funding for the Foras na Gaeilge scheme?

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