The Irish Language
Promoting our language, culture and heritage
The Irish language is a living language. There have been huge strides taken over the years to increase the number of people speaking Irish. Yet the state has failed to develop the infrastructure required to achieve the level of service that the public demand.
Funding for organisations supporting the Irish language has declined dramatically in recent years yet according to a Conradh na Gaeilge report into the development of the language over the next 5 years (An Plean Fáis 2024-2029), 2 out of every 3 people surveyed believed that the state needed to provide more support to promote the language.
The same report indicated that 1 of every 2 people surveyed would like the opportunity to speak Irish more often. The desire is clear. The need is also clear. The Irish language is one of the most important cultural identifiers we have as a people. It is a gift that has been handed from generation to generation and has survived centuries of attempts to stifle its use.
In a world where globalisation and cultural homogeneity is rife, the language is that connection with the sense of place and community that every independent society needs to flourish.
Of course, employment in the Gaeltacht is closely linked to the Gaeltacht’s viability. The Údarás must ensure that preservation and promotion of the Irish language is at the heart of it’s work. There are 26 language planning areas and it is necessary to provide adequate funding for those communities involved in language planning in those areas in order to ensure that the language planning efforts are successful. Accordingly, it is necessary to provide extra funding for the Údarás in order to ensure that the necessary resources can be made available to every language planning area.
There is a lack of fairness regarding the funding being provided by Údarás na Gaeltachta. The changes in the capital budget of the state agencies that are responsible for the creation of employment between 2008 and 2022 is portrayed in the graph on page 21. It is evident that the Údarás na Gaeltacht budget decreased significantly in 2008 and, even by including the increase to €14.5 million which was announced in 2021, the Údarás is lagging behind the other two agencies significantly.
The Údarás na Gaeltachta capital budget has decreased from €25.5 million in 2008 to €14.5 million in 2021 (the Údarás capital budget has hon changed since 2021 despite the fact that the inflation rates associated with capital projects in the Gaeltacht are increasing), which equates a decrease of 43%. The IDA’s budget increased 66% and Enterprise Ireland’s budget increased 30% during the same period.
