Republican News · Thursday 10 April 2003

Insufficent support for gaelteachts

Incoming Conradh na Gaeilge President Seagh Mac Siurdain has warned the government that legal action may be required to safeguard the rights of native Irish speakers.

At the language organisation's annual conference last weekend, Mac Siurdain, a Galway-based health worker and trade unionist, urged TDs and Senators to back the Official Languages Equality Bill, due soon to come back before the Seanad.

Mac Siurdain wants to use the legislation to secure basic rights for Irish speakers and he also wants to see a more results-based approach to the language from Conradh. "We should at the end of the year see if more Irish is being used," he said.

He added that the Tograí initiative, companies promoting Irish in six communities outside the gaeltachts, had been a success.

Sinn Féin Dáil spokesperson on arts, cultural and Gaeltacht affairs, Aengus Ó Snodaigh, said:

"No government in the history of this state has ever put sufficent concentration of resources into the Gaeltacht areas. Any one in this country that wants to raise their children through Irish faces difficulties not only in getting schooling but also in terms of auxiliary services, such as a proper fire service.

"If the government wants to show that it is serious about the gaeltacht areas surviving, it should provide for proper investment in these areas."