Reviewing the first 10 language plans

There is a “language emergency in the Gaeltacht” which must be addressed before the Irish language is lost as “as a spoken community language”, a review of the first 10 language plans published by the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht in January illustrates.

The review, published under the Gaeltacht Act 2012, identified problems observed across language planning areas including population decline, the domination of English, the decline of Irish, economic deprivation, and a lack of resources and investment.

Although “great work is being done in many of those areas”, the report says that these difficulties will persist “without immediate targeted support to language projects and coaching in language planning”.
Recommendations in the review are aimed at raising awareness, enacting legislative measures, and putting in place monitoring and evaluation systems.

The review recommends the introduction of obligatory training for public offices. In an answer from the Department regarding the recommendations in the review, it agrees that “there would be value to this”.
To increase the use of Irish in daily life, the review recommends focussing language plans on frequency and regularity. The Department says that the amendment to the language planning guidelines is part of the second cycle of the language plans.

Many recommendations relate to pay, contracts, coaching, and the standardisation and improvement of staffing structures in the language planning offices. The Department says it has already made efforts to standardise contracts, that it is intended that Údarás na Gaeltachta will review the role of language planning offices, and that more resources will be made available.

Regarding housing, the review recommends that priority be given to housing applicants that speak Irish, and that specialised grants be made available for families that are “committed to the use of Irish in the Gaeltacht”. The Department says there is a commitment in the Government’s housing plan that a National Planning Statement for the Gaeltacht would be published in 2027.

John Prendergast, advocacy manager for Conradh na Gaeilge says: “We are in no way closer to a review system to be in place for the language planning process, which is disappointing and disheartening for a lot of language planning officers and Gaeltacht communities.

“Action must be taken for the Gaeltacht, and this process must have a strategic vision, including a review model.”