Vol. 544 No. 1
199 Mr. Kenny asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage Gaeltacht and the Islands her views on the general level of competency in speaking Irish within each Gaeltacht area; and if she will make a statement in respect of an estimated number of people who do not speak Irish on a daily basis in each such Gaeltacht area. [28151/01]
As the Deputy is aware, usage of the Irish language varies throughout the Gaeltacht areas being strong and weak in varying degrees. Substantial and wide ranging information has been collated and published by the Central Statistics Office on the usage of the Irish language in the State in general and also in the Gaeltacht areas. In this regard, I would refer the Deputy to the Irish language section of the principal socio-economic results of the 1996 Census of Population, which was published by the CSO in April 1998.
The Government established An Coimisiún faoin nGaeilge sa Ghaeltacht in April 2000. Its terms of reference include establishing and analysing from available data – including the Census of Population returns and statistics from Scéim Labhairt na Gaeilge administered by my Department – the extent to which Irish is the spoken vernacular in the various Gaeltacht areas. The report of this commission is expected by the end of the year and I look forward to its analysis of the matter and its recommendations arising therefrom.
I also refer the Deputy to the reply to a somewhat similar question of 14 December last.
