Dublin Condemned For Violating Languages Act – Gaelic Language Schools Suffer

The Irish Language Commissioner, Teanga Rónán Ó Domhnaill, has issued a damning report against the Department of Education and Skills charging non-compliance with the Education Act of 1998.

Alleging that only two out of 32 Councils are in compliance with the Languages Act, An Coimisinéir Teanga Rónán Ó Domhnaill states that the charges are based on the results of an Audit conducted over a 12 month period. The Audit disclosed that the Donegal and Laois Councils were the only two bodies offering Irish language services in compliance with the Languages Act.

The most damning elements in the report focus on the attempt to place teaching staff in Irish medium schools who lack minimal language skills.  The investigation includes details of the Government Department forcing a Gaeltacht school to accept  teachers lacking required Gaelic proficiency despite both the teachers and school authorities in question making it known that both parties felt the teachers had “insufficient Irish to carry out their work in that language”.

In response, Commissioner Ó Domhnaill is quoted in multiple news reports as follows: “This is the first time that I have sent a case to the Houses of the Oireachtas, and the issue involved could not be more important. The Department of Education and Skills has not put a system in place which ensures that teachers teaching in Gaeltacht Schools and Gaelscoileanna are fluent in the Irish Language. I simply cannot accept that. This demonstrates the widespread lack of care for the language by the State generally; if local authorities aren’t complying with their language obligations, what hope does a citizen have in getting the proper service from the State generally “.

Dublin bureaucrats may view the failure to demonstrate competence in Irish by teachers as a minor issue even when staffing Irish medium schools, but it goes to the heart of the forces within the government which are undermining the Irish Language.  The latest condemnation of the current government’s failure to protect the tongue echoes the words of the former Language Commissioner. This latest outrage is just another egregious example of what former Language Commissioner Sean O' Cuirreain described as follows in an April 2013 interview with Transceltic shortly before he resigned in protest at the lack of government support for the Gaelic Tongue of Ireland: “While there are many who are favorable to Irish and concerned about the language’s future, there are many, many more who simply regard anything to do with Irish as a thorn in the administrative side. The culture of any organization seeps down from the actions of those at the top and if the view from above is that the language is not important this sets the trend and agenda with state agencies staff."

http://www.herald.ie/news/dept-failed-irish-language-duties-31223620.html

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/department-of-education-failed-to-f...

http://www.transceltic.com/irish/fight-save-irish-language-exclusive-int...