Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 5 December 2023
58. Deputy Pauline Tully asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media the actions she has taken to enable Foras na Gaeilge to reopen the scéim forbartha líonraí Gaeilge; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [53614/23]
View answerI ask the Minister the actions she has taken to enable Foras na Gaeilge to reopen the scéim forbartha líonraí Gaeilge.
Scéim forbartha líonraí Gaeilge is Foras na Gaeilge’s multi-annual community scheme to promote, protect and ingrain the Irish language in particular areas with an emphasis on the development and implementation of comprehensive language plans for the areas that are part of the scheme. There are 36 Irish language groups, North and South, funded through the scheme, including nine grantees within a number of the areas which have already been designated as Irish language networks or Gaeltacht service towns. The remaining 27 grantees under the scheme are at various levels depending on their current stage of development.
Structured progression has been built into this scheme with a focus on the current stage of development of the applicant. Three stages of development have been developed as part of this scheme: higher level; intermediate level; and basic level. It would be hoped that groups at the basic and intermediate levels would progress over time to the next level subject to successful implementation of their agreed multi-annual programmes. In accordance with Government policy on the Irish language, the emphasis of this scheme is on longer term and more strategic planning following the principles of language planning. The scheme began in January 2022 and has funding committed up to December 2024. It is expected that a further iteration of this scheme will be advertised in 2024. Over €2.8 million has been provided to groups, both North and South of the Border, under the scheme for 2022 and 2023.
As the Deputy will be aware, Foras na Gaeilge is part of An Foras Teanga, the North-South language body, co-sponsored by my Department and the Department for Communities in Northern Ireland. On this basis, all matters relating to the budget for the North-South language body budget must be approved by the North-South Ministerial Council, NSMC. My Department has again provided an additional allocation of €700,000 for North-South co-operation in its budget for 2024. Unfortunately, it is not currently possible to release this funding to the language body due to the absence of NSMC meetings.
Irish language community organisations are doing great work with limited resources and they are serving an ever-growing demand. They need to be adequately funded and properly supported. A number of these groups exist in my constituency of Cavan-Monaghan. It is a constituency that tells a very different tale when one compares the two counties. In Cavan, we need a lot more Gaelscoileanna. Monaghan’s community groups need more resources because they need to be able to better provide Irish-speaking children a chance and a reason to use the language outside of the Gaelscoil.
Funding for this work is provided through Foras na Gaeilge’s scéim forbartha líonraí Gaeilge scheme but since the pandemic, there has been a large pent-up demand for the reopening of the scheme. The Minister of State explained why it cannot be, but is there some way that the community organisations can be supported? There are groups springing up in towns all over the country. Even in Cavan, there are two. There is one in Gaeil Mhuinchille in Cootehill and Gael An Cabhán in Cavan, which opened recently. I am wondering can support be given to the Irish language community organisations and can we recognise the importance of the work by ensuring that there is ring-fenced additional funding through Foras na Gaeilge to allow this scheme to reopen for applications?
As the Deputy beside Deputy Tully will know, the Department does give supports to groups outside of the Foras na Gaeilge application process, such as Baile Átha Cliath le Gaeilge and Gaillimh le Gaeilge. It might be helpful if I can take the details of some of the projects the Deputy is talking about in Cavan and Monaghan and have my officials in the Department have a look at them.
The Deputy is correct with regard to people who want to rear their children through the medium of Irish or who want to school them through the medium of Irish. I would say it is probably easier, and Deputy Ó Snodaigh is smiling at me. One thing that is easier for me to mention trí mheán na Gaeilge ná trí mheán an Bhéarla is an easpa muiníne, the lack of confidence people have. We were all brought up going to school for eight years in primary school and for five years in secondary school. When I was put into the job I have, my biggest difficulty, and most people's biggest difficulty, is their confidence in Irish. It is in all of us only sometimes you have to dig it out a bit more than you have to dig out other things. I thank Deputy Ó Snodaigh and the committee for digging it out of me. The lack of confidence that most of our peers in our age group have is the saddest thing that confronts the Irish language.
If the Deputy has specific projects in Cavan and Monaghan that she wants me to look at, I will certainly do that.
I thank the Minister of State. I agree with him. I went to school for 13 years and have lots of Irish in my head but actually having the confidence to speak it is different. That is why we need to support community organisations to actually reach out to people so that people can join these organisations and use whatever Irish they have, because if you do not use it, you lose it. In the months coming up to the budget, 138 community organisations from around the country came together to formulate and propose to Government an ambitious new investment plan for the Irish language. They want to address the long-standing issues with funding, particularly the lack of support for groups doing the work on the ground. The proposals look to reverse austerity-era cutbacks and fix a situation where Foras na Gaeilge and Údarás na Gaeltachta are in receipt of less funding from the State today than 20 years ago. That has to be addressed because I think there is an appetite in this country to revive the language. We need to support those on the ground in the communities, as well as in the schools, to do that. All funding would be welcome.
Údarás na Gaeltachta has had record years with regard to the employment it has created. I can provide, in tabular form, the progress the Department has made in reversing some of the financial difficulties that there were for the medium of the Irish language. One thing that is really important, which I take from Deputy Tully's question, is that somebody who has an interest in the Irish language is not afraid to raise it in the medium of English. As somebody who has had to relearn it on three different occasions, including when I went to college and now again, I think it is as important for people who have an interest in the Irish language in this House to feel that they can raise it through the medium of English. They currently feel that they have to be able to raise it through the medium of Irish. It is refreshing to hear a Deputy come in and give her experiences in her own constituency and maybe challenge me and some of the factual inaccuracies, which I will reply to with a written answer, about the funding this year. It is refreshing to hear that because I think if more Deputies did that, it would give heart to an awful lot of people who feel that they cannot raise the issue of their native language because they have that easpa muiníne.
