The first report from the Language Commissioner, Seán Ó Cuirreáin, is to be welcomed as a positive contribution to the maintenance of Irish. Since February 2004 his office has received 304 complaints regarding lack of services in Irish.
These complaints are more significant in content rather than number, because they show citizens of the State complain that they were denied the opportunity to use its first official language in their everyday lives. It has become a mantra among critics of Irish that "no one" uses it. Mr Ó Cuirreáin tries to demonstrate that the lack of use is not due to lack of interest but rather lack of opportunity.
The most important parts of his report, however, are his remarks relating to the need to review the teaching of Irish in the education system and to the lack of Irish spoken in the Houses of the Oireachtas where less than 1 per cent of debates take place in the language.
As the Language Commissioner points out the State makes an enormous contribution in time and money to the teaching of the Irish language. So why do so many students fail to become fluent? The commissioner maintains that this failure is not simply the fault of teachers. If so, it would seem legitimate to ask how effective the various curriculums are. That debate is an ongoing one in the Irish-language sector.
It is also valid to ask what opportunities young people have to speak Irish after school hours and at weekends in their social environment? What chance do adults have, in major urban areas such as Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick, Sligo, to use the language after office hours? The most legitimate question, of course, is whether there would be such an interest in the language if it were not compulsory for most students in their State examinations?
There are some 1.6 million people in this State who consider themselves Irish speakers. Critics suggest that it is simple hypocrisy on their part to identify themselves as such while not using the language regularly. It is more accurate to argue that many people choose to stand with Irish because they recognise its importance to our examination system, their identity and our cultural well-being.
The success of the education system has been to create a huge - but predominantly passive - language pool. The challenge facing Government and language organisations is to turn those passive speakers into active ones. It would be encouraging if politicians answered the commissioner's call and used more Irish in debates in the Dáil and the Seanad. It will cost the taxpayer nothing and might even set a good example for schoolchildren.