I want to discuss the question of keeping the Irish language as the living language in the Gaeltacht. I say that it is absurd, simply because you can put your hands into the pockets of the taxpayers, to throw money to people, as you know of no better way of doing something for them, when, with a certain amount of discussion, things that would help could be found. There was a refusal by the Minister to do anything to follow up the work of the Board of Works that would help the Blasket Islands by giving the people a foothold on which they could land currachs in safety whether for fishing, for sending animals ashore or for their own use. I ask the Minister to realise that in the parish of Dunquin you had some of the finest land in Kerry and some of the best-worked land in Ireland where there was a vigorous, cheerful, hardworking and courageous people who could only get a living from the land and the sea.
As well as having the quay and access to it attended to I asked for a travelling creamery which would connect the milk supplies for Ventry and enable the people to develop production of milk and considerably help their agriculture. That cannot be done and will not be done and the Government's hands go into the pockets of the taxpayers and they throw to the children of Dunquin a few more shillings.
The Minister was very careful not to say that this scheme had done anything in the past and he was very careful not to say that his present scheme was going to do anything in the future, but it is up to us to repair in some way the Minister's omissions and to see what the Minister is dealing with here. I have pressed on the educational side for many years for a separate inspectorate for the Gaeltacht. The Minister introduces a proposal here to assist children going to primary schools and we get thrown in, as if it was a very difficult and very technical business, the idea that he may not confine the giving of this grant to children going to primary schools, but may extend it to secondary schools and to people going to technical or continuation schools. Why can the whole of the educational services of the Gaeltacht not be put under an inspectorate which will be unified and which will cover the whole of the primary and technical schools and any secondary schools which can be linked up with the scheme?
There is an educational problem here and a psychological problem here, and what could guide the Minister more in seeing what the problem is, from the educational or psychological side, than an inspectorate whose sole job and whose permanent job was to stand over the machinery of education in the districts which are Irish-speaking, or can be made Irish-speaking, and to steep themselves in the language and in educational work for the language, to be a true guide and true help to the educational machine in the district and a true guide and a true help to the Minister in ascertaining what should or could be done and what was succeeding or failing in bringing our people in the Irish-speaking districts the thing they want most, the thing for which they thirst most and the thing they are most prepared to receive, that is, the highest possible education that men and women can get?
It is, I suppose, because they have no education but primary education up to the present that the Minister has not thought of mentioning anything but primary education in relation to them until to-night, but when we look at the world outside we realise that even the machine tenders, the manual workers of Great Britain, are expected by statesmen, by trade unionists, by industrialists and by educationists, in their new outlook on these things, to have better than a primary education, to have a secondary and technical education, if they are to be made fit to be manual workers, machine workers or skilled workers of any kind in the new world that is coming. Here, in the Irish-speaking districts, we have merely primary education, with no supervision, except patchwork supervision by inspectors with one leg in English-speaking districts and the other in Irish-speaking districts. No wonder the Minister cannot guide us in any way as to what he is doing, or cannot be clear in his own mind about what he wants to do for these districts.
Since 1934, a grant of £2 has been given to the parents of children who, going to school with a knowledge of Irish and coming from an Irish-speaking home, gave satisfactory school attendance and were satisfactory in their school work. What we have to look at is what has come as a result of that. The matter was first touched upon in the Report of the Department of Education for 1932-33, page 36. The report says:
"In the Breac-Ghaeltacht only the older people speak Irish, and as these die out the language as a living speech is disappearing with them. In the Gaeltacht the language is still used as the home speech in a very restricted number of areas, but in over two-thirds of the Gaeltacht Irish is dying as the home language, owing to the fact that though the older people know Irish they cannot see any economic value in speaking it to the children, whereas the economic value of English is selfevident."
Later, the report says:—
"Something seemed, therefore, to be needed that would bring home to every household in the Gaeltacht that there is a money value in talking Irish to the children, and after full consideration of all the circumstances, it was felt that there was no way in which this could be done except by the payment of a small annual bonus to the parent (or guardian) for each school-going child in the Gaeltacht or Breac-Ghaeltacht who clearly came to school from an Irish-speaking home, and who as a result was able to speak Irish fluently and naturally. In order to carry this into effect a scheme was formulated by the Minister for Education and particulars of the scheme are outlined in a circular issued early in 1934 to the schools."
That was the initiation of the scheme. A year or so passed and in the report for the year 1934-35, page 30, in a reference to the position of Irish as the spoken language in the Gaeltacht and Breac-Ghaeltacht, we read:—
"Do braitheadh go raibh géar-gádh le chóras d'en t-saghas san mar ba léir go raibh an Ghaedhilg ag meathlughadh i ndiaidh a chéile ina lán áiteanna 'na raibh sí 'na h-aon-teanga nó 'na príomh-theanga go dtí fiche éigin bliadhan ó shoin, agus go raibh an Béarla ag teacht i n-uachtar 'na h-áit...
Ar a shon nach bhfuil ach breis bheag ar dhá bhliadhain ó deineadh an Scéim do chur ós chomhair an phobail, ní misde a rádh go bhfuil athrughadh tuisciona maidir le labhairt na teangan tagaithe dá barr chun an phobail ins na ceanntracha Gaedhealacha, agus go bhfuil toradh foghanta cheana féin le feidhm na Scéime sin (dá ghiorracht é ó tosnuigheadh léi), chun an Ghaedhilg do chur fé mheas agus í choimeád mar bheo-theangain ins na h-áiteanna fíorGhaedhealacha agus í chur dá labhairt ath-uair i n-áiteanna 'na raibh an Bhéarla ag gabháil nó gabhtha lastuas di go dtí so, tá áiteanna 'na raibh an Bhéarla le cloisint chomh coitchiannta leis an Gaedhilg dhá bhliadhain ó shoin, go bhfuil an Béarla curtha ar ceal anois ionnta agus áiteanna eile gur fánach an uair go dtí le goirid a cloistí an teanga Gaedhilge ach ó bhéalaibh na seandaoine, agus anois tá an Ghaedhilg á h-úsáid go coitchiannta mar ghnáth-urlabhra 'na lán tighthe."
The report refers in those words to the fact that this scheme was introduced because English was getting the upper hand in many Irish-speaking districts and that, although it was only a little while since the new scheme was introduced, an appreciable change had been brought about in the speaking of the language, that there was a great result already in bringing back respect for the language and in keeping it alive and that whereas, before that, in a number of places one heard Irish only from the mouths of the old people, it was now the general language of conversation in these places.
In the report for 1935-36, at page 31, it is stated:—
"Bíodh go bhfuil ceist aithbheochana na Gaedhilge ós cómhair an Phobail le breis is dachad bliadhan agus iarracht mhór déanta chun an teanga do chur san áit is dual di sa tír mar theanga labhartha na ndaoine, caithfear a admháil nár chuaidh brigh an scéil sin i bhfeidhm puinn le linn na h-aimsire sin ar mhuinntir na Gaedhealtachta. Is amhlaidh a bhí an teanga ag dul cun deiridh i ndiaidh a chéile mar ghnáth-urlabhra ins na liomatáistí sin agus an Béarla ag teacht na h-áit.
Ba léir, dá leanfadh an scéil amhlaidh sa nGaedhealtacht, go mbeadh tobar na fíor-Ghaedhilge imthighthe i ndísc i gcionn aimsire, agus do braitheadh nár bh'fholáir córas do cheapadh chun an dísc sin do chosc, agus ar an adhbhar san, do cheap an t-Aire Oideachais an Scéim seo, an Deontas £2..."
Then it goes on:
"An scoil-bhliadhain 1933-34 an chéad bhliadhain gur cuireadh an scéim i bhfeidhm, agus is áthas leis an Roinn gur féidir a rádh go bhfuil an Scéim seo ag déanamh a chion le h-éifeacht chun an chuspóir gur ceapadh chuige í do thabhairt chun críche, sé sin, an Ghaedhilg do choimeád mar ghnáth-theanga an phobail ins na liomatáistí 'na bhfuil sí acu go fóill, agus í d'aithbheochaint agus í neartughadh mar theanga i saoghal na ndaoine ins na h-áiteanna 'na raibh an Ghaedhilg ag dul ar ceal."
It can be said that the year 1935-36 was the highest year for the number of children coming under the scheme. In that year, there were 11,061 children benefiting under the scheme. In the report for the year 1936-37, at page 23, it is stated:—
"Sar ar cuireadh an scéim ar bun bhí an Béarla ag brughadh isteach ar an nGaedhealtacht diaidh ar ndiaidh i n-aimhdheóin gach a ndearnadh go dtí san ins na scoileanna agus tré scéimeanna eile a cuireadh ar bun ar mhaithe leis an dteanga náisiúnta."
Further on, we find:—
"Tá neartuighthe go mór ar an nGaedhilg mar ghnáth-urlabhra ins na ceanntracha Gaedhealacha de thoradh an chórais seo agus tá a lán tighthe 'na bhfuil an teanga Gaedhilge mar aon-teanga teaghlaigh anois dá dheasca, rud nach mbeadh amhlaidh mar a mbeadh an deontas £2. Sul ar cuireadh an córas so ar bun 151 scoileanna a bhí cláruighthe fé riaghail 121 (1) mar scoileanna sa bhFhíor Ghaedhealtacht, mar leanas, 64 i dTír Chonaill, 15 i gCondae Mhuigheó, 50 i gCondae na Gaillimhe, 15 i gCondae Chiarraighe, 6 i gCondae Chorcaighe agus 1 i gCondae Phortlairge. Ó cuireadh an córas so an Deontais i bhfeidhm tá méaduighthe go 171 ar an uimhir scoileanna san atá cláruighthe anois mar scoileanna sa bhFhíor-Ghaedhealtacht. Ní mór a rádh nach gcláruighthear Scoil mar Scoil sa bhFhíor Ghaedhealtacht go dtí gur dearbh do'n Roinn gur ceanntar 'na labhartar an Ghaedhilg mar gnáththeanga teaghlaigh go coitcheannta ceanntar na scoile sin, agus gurb í an Gaedhilg amháin, nó go háirithe gur fearr Gaedhilg ná Béarla, a bhíonn ag na páistí óga ag dul ar scoil dóibh an chéad lá."
In the report for 1937-38, at page 25, we find:—
"Tá de thoradh na scéime seo go bhfuil an meath a bhí ag teacht ar an Ghaedhilg sa bhFíor-Ghaedhealtacht coiscithe agus go bhfuil an Ghaedhilg á labhairt anois mar ghnáth-theanga 'na lán tighthe sa Ghaedhealtacht agus sa mBreac-Ghaedhealtacht nach raibh á labhairt ionnta ach an Béarla sar a cuireadh scéim an Deontais £2 ar bun."
Then the blinds were pulled down for two years on nearly everything in the Department of Education except statistics, but the statistics did not apply to the position of Irish in the Gaeltacht.
We come then to the year 1940-41 and at page 19 of the report, under the heading, "Staid na Gaeilge", we find:—
"Scéim iseadh é seo a chuir an tAire Oideachais ar bun sa scoil-bhliadhain 1933-34 d'fhon cosc do chur le meathlú na Gaedhilge ins na ceanntracha Gaedhealacha, agus labhairt na teangan do leathanú ionnta le muinntir na gceanntracha san do ghríosadh chun gan ach an Gaedhilg amháin do labhairt le na gcloinn.
'Siad so na coingheallacha atá riachtanach chun an Deontas do thuilleamh:—
1. An páiste bheith 'na chomhnuidhe agus ag freastal scoile i gceanntar a áirmhightear mar Ghaedhealtacht nó mar Bhreac-Ghaedhealtacht.
2. É bheith 6 bliadhna d'aois nó ós a chionn agus beith fé bhun 14 bliadhna ar an gcéad lá de'n scoil-bhliadhain.
3. An Ghaedhilg a bheith á labhairt mar ghnáth-theanga i dtigh an pháiste.
4. Tinnreamh an dalta bheith go sásamhail.
5. Dul chun cinn sásamhail a bheith déanta ag an dalta ar scoil i rith na scoil-bhliadhna.
An scoil-bhliadhain dar chríoch 30adh Meitheamh 1941, an t-ochtmhadh bliadhain go ndearnadh an deontas d'íoch. Taisbeánann na figiúirí seo thíos, cé méid páistí agus cé méid lín-tighe a ghnóthuigh an Deontas i n-aghaidh na scoil-bhliadhna, 1940-41."
Ag seo tuairisc ar an méid paiste agus líon-tighe a thuill an deontas in aghaidh na scoil-bhliana san —agus annsan tá na figiúirí againn, agus is fearr dúinn iad do chur síos ionnus go mbeidh siad tuigthe:—1933-34, 8,996 children; 1934-35, 10,226; 1935-36, 11,061; 1936-37, 10,969; 1937-38, 11,059; 1938-39, 10,870; 1939-40, 10,741; 1940-41, 10,752; 1941-42, 10,485; 1942-43, 10,154; 1943-44, 9,593. That is, that there has been a progressive deterioration in the figures as regards children from the year 1935-36.
