Vol. 528 No. 3
13 Mr. Creed asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage Gaeltacht and the Islands her views on the state of health of the Irish language in terms of usage and competence, both within and outside the Gaeltacht areas; and the policy conclusions that can be drawn from this evaluation. [30044/00]
It is a core policy goal of my Department to reverse the decline in the use of Irish as the principal means of communication in the Gaeltacht and to extend the use of Irish in the rest of the country.
To examine the health of the Irish language, in terms of usage and competence within the Gaeltacht, broad terms of reference have been given by the Government to the recently established Commission on the Irish Language in the Gaeltacht. The first term of reference of the commission is to establish and analyse 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. As the Deputy is aware the usage of Irish varies throughout the Gaeltacht – areas being strong and weak in varying degrees.
As regards the usage of Irish in the State in general the results of the 1996 census of population indicate that a total of just over 1.43 million persons aged three years and over were recorded as having an ability to speak Irish and over a quarter of those who indicated that they could speak Irish were reported as speaking it on a daily basis.
The position of the Irish language in the Gaeltacht is of concern and that is the reason that a commission was established to make recommendations to Government with regard to strengthening the Irish language as the spoken language therein.
It is evident from the replies to the question on usage of Irish in the 1996 census of population that there is a strong foundation of Irish speakers in the State on which a bilingual society can be developed. To achieve this concerted action will be required by the State and it citizens. My Department, Foras na Gaeilge and the Irish language organisations will have a major role in the matter. A key action being undertaken by my Department at present is the ongoing work on the preparation of a language Bill, the Official Languages Equality Bill, which will give legislative effect to Article 8 of the Constitution regarding the Irish language and which will provide for the improvement of the availability of State services through Irish throughout the country.
