Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 5 May 2022
25. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media the steps she has taken to promote the Irish Language and to ensure the survival of the language in Gaeltacht areas since she took office. [21987/22]
View answerAs the Deputy is aware, the overarching 20-Year Strategy for the Irish Language 2010-2030 and the accompanying Action Plan for the Irish Language (Plean Gníomhaíochta 2018-2022) represents state policy for the Irish language and Gaeltacht regions. The Strategy and supporting action plan have cross-departmental ownership and, accordingly, responsibility for implementation falls on a number of Government Departments, bodies and Irish language and Gaeltacht organisations. The Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media is responsible inter alia, for coordinating its implementation.
The Action Plan and the two annual progress reports published to date present a clear overview of the 180 or so actions being advanced by circa 60 stakeholders in support of the language and Gaeltacht regions. Undoubtedly, functioning in the shadow of the pandemic over the last two years has proved challenging and this is no less the case in terms of delivery of supports in the domain of Irish language and Gaeltacht affairs.
Nonetheless, significant progress is being made and the publication of the second progress report - covering the period from July 2019 to December 2020, following Government approval, sets out in detail the advances that have been made on a cross-governmental and cross-sectoral basis over the period.
In terms of financial supports for the language insofar as my Department is concerned, an additional exchequer allocation of €7m for language programmes plus €4.2m extra for Irish language broadcasting was included in Budget 2022, further enabling support for the language and Gaeltacht regions - particularly in the context of the ongoing implementation of the language planning process and the Policy on Gaeltacht Education, being spearheaded by the Department of Education.
This additional allocation ultimately means that total funding of nearly €90m is being deployed by my Department in support of the Irish language and Gaeltacht regions in the current year.
An overview of measures, schemes and initiatives being undertaken in support of the language can be found on my Department's website as well as those of Údarás na Gaeltachta and Foras na Gaeilge.
