180 legislative amendments proposed to stop the ‘pushing’ of English on the Irish language community

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180 legislative amendments proposed to stop the 'pushing' of English on the Irish language community
180 Legislative Amendments Proposed To Stop The 'pushing' Of English

A Sinn Féin Irish language spokesperson says that the lack of services in Irish from the state system is ‘putting enormous pressure on Gaeltacht people to abandon Irish and turn to English’

180 legislative amendments proposed to stop the 'pushing' of English on the Irish language community

Sinn Féin Irish language spokesperson Aengus Ó Snodaigh has proposed 180 amendments to the bill which seeks to amend the Official Languages ​​Act, which will be scrutinized in the Houses of the. Next week.

Ó Snodaigh, who is Chairman of the Oireachtas Irish Language Committee, said that the situation of the language and the Gaeltacht is “extremely fragile” and that “radical action” is needed to “protect and rescue” it.

The Bill will come before the Select Committee on the Irish Language, the Gaeltacht, and the Irish Speaking Community next Thursday, 10 December.

Ó Snodaigh said that the Official Languages ​​(Amendment) Bill 2019 needs to be strengthened if the state system is to play a role in saving the language.

He said the bill would be useless if he and Sinn Féin proposed the amendments, some of which are based on the recommendations of various language organizations and the public.

A Sinn Féin Irish language spokesman said the “main outcome” of the amendments would be “to strengthen the wording in the legislation” in relation to obliging Ministers and public bodies to “act”, rather than allowing them to “ignore on the statutory objectives of the Bill.

Ó Snodaigh is also proposing an amendment to the Bill so that “all state services must be available through Irish in the Gaeltacht through Irish before 2026”.

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With regard to the main objective of the Bill, that 20% of new public service recruits would be Irish speakers by 2030, Ó Snodaigh is proposing that this target be achieved by 2026.

In addition, it is proposing that by 2030 10% of all civil service staff should have Irish.

Another of the amendments would require all public bodies to make proper use of Irish names and addresses and to keep a proper record of them – including long extensions – by 2025. Private bodies would have to meet the same obligation by 2027.

Another amendment would give An Coimisinéir Teanga additional powers to proactively monitor any new legislation and scrutinize any bills before they are enacted.

Other amendments would impose sanctions and fines on public bodies for breaches of language law.

Ó Snodaigh says that there is a “planning and development crisis” in the Gaeltacht and that the reforms will seek to address it by making a Linguistic Impact Assessment required by law.

Some of the other reforms proposed by Sinn Féin relate to the promotion of bilingualism in the Houses of the Oireachtas, the courts, road signs, product labeling, health warnings, the health service, education, broadcasting and the sector. private.

It is also recommended that the Placenames Commission be re-established and that the Council for Gaeltacht and Irish-medium Education (COGG) be given statutory status.

The chairman of the committee, which will discuss the next stage of the bill’s journey next week, said he hoped the Government would listen to the amendments he and Sinn Féin are proposing.

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“The situation of the Irish language and the Gaeltacht is extremely fragile at the moment. The Comprehensive Linguistic Study warned us in 2007 that Irish would cease to be the spoken language of the Gaeltacht within 20 years without drastic changes to save it.

“We are more than halfway through that period and things have got worse, due to the government’s disregard, and the number of Irish speakers in the Gaeltacht areas has decreased for the first time since the establishment of the State.”

Ó Snodaigh said that the lack of services in Irish from the state system was “putting enormous pressure on the people of the Gaeltacht to abandon the Irish language and turn to English”.