Ireland's New Budget Short Changes the Irish Language - Slow Death by a Thousand Cuts

Ireland’s 2018 Budget is getting mixed reviews when it comes to funding for the Gaeltacht and Irish language initiatives.

Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe, recently announced that Dublin is allocating an additional €2.5 million for the Irish language and the Gaeltacht in 2018. The additional funding is being framed as support for the “Twenty Year Strategy for Irish”. Although Donohoe included in his Budget address an affirmation of Dublin’s support for Gaelic, “...the Irish language is a vital part of our country”, that is not how it is being received in some quarters.

To put these numbers in to perspective in 2015 the Irish Times reported that the cost to Ireland of accommodating refugees under the new EU relocation programme will amount to €48 million according to Minister of State Simon Harris.  Versus €2.5 million for the Irish language and the Gaeltacht in 2018. 

In response to the budget announcement, Conradh na Gaeilge (The Gaelic League) the leading advocated for the Irish language, stated that it is deeply concerned over the impact the new budget numbers will have on the future of Irish and the viability of the “Twenty Year Language Plan”. Several politicians slammed the budget as falling short of what is needed to reach the goals of the 20 Year Language Plan. On Twitter, the Social Democrats leader Roisín Shortall said “Twice as much as being allocated to Taoiseach’s communications unit than the funding increase for Irish language and Gaeltacht.”

In spite of the Finance Minister’s kind words there have been little more than false praise and empty promises coming from the Irish Government when it comes to funding for the Gaeltacht and Gaelic language initiatives. Proving this point of view one need only reflect on the indifference of the current and recent governments to the fate of the Celtic tongue. Budgets for the Gaeltacht and Foras na Gaeilge have suffered a reduction exceeding 50% since the financial crisis in 2008. At the same time that Dublin are pretending to support the tongue they are slashing funding and adding responsibilities to the agencies responsible to the Gaeltacht and Gaelic.

For example, in 2013 the Galway Advertiser, under the headline "Budget a Hammer Blow to Gaeltacht", reported on outrage at funding cuts announced by Dublin that year slashing funding for programs that support the Gaeltacht (Irish Language Areas of Ireland). At the time Senator Trevor O' Clochtartaigh, the spokesman for the Irish language and Gaeltacht for the political party of Sinn Fein, was quoted in the article citing the impact of the cuts on infrastructure supporting the Gaeltacht:  "another example of the lack of respect the Government has for the Irsih language and those who speak it."

The Governmnet's official position on the 20 year plan here is taken from the web site of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: “ This 20-Year Strategy for the Irish Language is built on the foundation of the Constitutional status of the language and follows on the Government Statement on the Irish Language published in December 2006. That Statement which affirmed the Government’s support for the development and preservation of the Irish language and the Gaeltacht. The right of the public to use Irish in dealings with the State and with other bodies will be developed and the appropriate arrangements to deliver this will be put in place Objective 3: The Irish language community inside and outside the Gaeltacht will be given encouragement and support to transmit Irish to the next generation as a living household language. Towards this end, a wide range of services in Irish will be provided. Objective 4: The Gaeltacht will be given special support as an Irish-speaking area.”

However, five years in to the “20 Year Strategy for the Irish Language 2010-2030", the Gaelic League has condemned the lack of progress by the Irish government in support of the objectives outlined in the 20 year plan. Cóilín Ó Cearbhaill, President of Conradh na Gaeilge and Julian de Spáinn, General Secretary of Conradh na Gaeilge have each issued statements urging action by Dublin.  The position of the Gaelic League is best summarized by the following excerpt: “... Conradh na Gaeilge believes that... governmental reports highlight the negligible attention the state has in general given to the language and the Gaeltacht in the past five years, and underlines the dire necessity for the Department of the Taoiseach to show leadership in the implementation of the 20 Year Strategy for the Irish Language.”

In the Febraury 2014 interview with Transceltic, Seán Ó Cuirreáin, Ireland's First Language Commissioner, reached a similar unfortunate conclusion on the fate of the Irish Language under a succession of governments who are at best indifferent to the Irish Language: “ If you regard public administration as having two sides – the elected political masters who should decide on policy and the executive or administrative element (civil or public servants) who implement it, I was suggesting that there is a large cohort of people within the state sector (mainly senior civil servants) for whom the language has no importance nor is it anywhere on their agenda.  The politicians are generally favorable towards the language but very often too caught up with what they would see as more important issues (such as the economy, finances, etc). The civil servants, occasionally referred to as the permanent government, hold much sway and can set the agenda in their own way. 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.”

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