Vol. 408 No. 5
5 Mr. Deasy asked the Taoiseach if he has any definite figures for the number of people who use Irish as their everyday language; and the way in which this compares with the situation (i) 10, (ii) 20, (iii) 30 and (iv) 40 years ago.
Níl an t-eolas a iarrtar sa Cheist ar fáil. Cuirtear ceist sa Daonáireamh maidir le cumas labhartha na Gaeilge agus tá figiúirí comparáideacha ar fáil do na blianta 1961, 1971, 1981 agus 1986. Cuirfear sonraí timpeall sa Tuairisc Oifigiúil faoi líon na gcainteoirí Gaeilge ós cionn 3 bliana d'aois de réir torthaí na nDaonáireamh sin.
Tugann suirbhéanna éagsúla a rinneadh roinnt blianta ó shin le fios go labhraíonn duine amháin ar a laghad i 5 faoin gcéad de theaghlaigh an Stáit an Ghaeilge go minic nó go rialta agus go labhraíonn duine amháin ar a laghad i 25 faoin gcéad eile de na teaghlaigh an teanga go hannamh nó ar uairibh.
Líon na gcainteoirí Gaeilge a bhí ós cionn 3 bliana d'aois de réir na nDaonáireamh a tógadh sna blianta atá luaite
|
Bliain |
1961 |
1971 |
1981 |
1986 |
|
Líon |
716,420 |
789,429 |
1,018,413 |
1,042,701 |
The reply is not very informative. I asked the question specifically because of the contradictory statements made last week. The first figure was 10,000 native Irish speakers given in Brendan Ó hEithir's posthumous autobiography. There was a denial of that. It is only right that we should have an exact idea of how many people are speaking Irish as their everyday language, and how that figure has varied over the past 40 years.
Ceisteanna.
Would the Minister endeavour to give me that type of precise information?
Mar a dúirt mé san fhreagra, tá sé iontach deacair an cineál seo eolais a fháil. Maidir leis an figiúr sin, 10,000, tuairim pearsanta amháin é sin agus is rud é atá, mar a deirtear i mBéarla, "subjective" agus beidh tuairimí éagsúla ag chuile dhuine. Ba mhaith liom an figiúr sin a bheith agam ach nil sé éasca foirmle a fháil don cheist seo.
Ar aghaidh le cheist 6.
I appreciate the Minister's difficulty. I hope he takes my point on the issue. We need a more precise statistic and the statistic which the Minister gave is not very precise.
We must proceed by way of questions.
