Is Irish nearing extinction as a community language in the Gaeltacht? A growing body of evidence suggests it is, and that the rate of decline has speeded up in recent years, according to Prof Gearoid O Tuathaigh of UCG.
Prof O Tuathaigh is chairman of Udaras na Gaeltachta and is thus well placed to offer an authoritative overview. He told a conference in Westport at the weekend that less than a quarter of the 84,000 people in the "official" Gaeltacht live in areas where Irish is still the main spoken language.
"Even in the areas where Irish is strongest, there is undeniable evidence that the bilingual pattern operating in them tends more and more to give English the dominant position," he said, speaking in Irish.
"The linguistic basis for the Gaeltacht is fast eroding, and it is not clear that the actions of the State or language enthusiasts . . . are able to stop this erosion, never mind put in place a strategy to renew the language."
Prof O Tuathaigh was speaking to about 80 community and voluntary workers from various Gaeltacht bodies, who had gathered to devise an emergency strategy to tackle the decline. His words affirmed what many of them have been saying, with increasing desperation, in recent years. Rarely, until now, however, has the crisis been acknowledged on an official level, much less acted on.
"It is about 30 years since various experts (Mac Aoidh and his fellow researchers), said an integrated development strategy had to be urgently put in place in order to offer the slightest chance that a vibrant Gaeltacht community . . . could survive into the next generation.
"Some things have been achieved in the meantime. The people of the Gaeltacht won a number of historic victories. But the integrated development strategy never came.
"There are many people - experts and friends of the Gaeltacht included - who believe it is now too late; that the size of the truly Irish-speaking Gaeltacht community has fallen to a level so low as to be beyond recovery.
"Even in the strongest parishes, we are told, the tide has turned with the generation now growing up. English is the home language of more and more parents. They rely on the schools to give Irish to their children, who later as teenagers relate to each other through English.
"We don't have to yield to this fatalism, but we do have to face up to the evidence and to the truth. Even if an integrated development strategy is put in place now, especially in the areas where there is still a relatively strong Irish-speaking community . . . and even if the resources are put in place to tackle some of the basic problems . . . there is no certainty that we will be able to stabilise any Gaeltacht community, north, south, east or west in the medium to long term.
"But if we do not attempt such an integrated development strategy, and if we do not provide the resources for the attempt, without delay, there will be no need to ask the question `what is the future of the Gaeltacht?' in two generations' time."
The Minister of State for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Mr Eamon O Cuiv, told the conference he was "pressing forward rapidly" with plans for a Language Act which would clarify the rights of Irish speakers to State services through Irish.
He said it was "nonsense" for the State to try to protect and develop the language, when at the same time many State agencies were helping to spread English in Gaeltacht areas.
"It is nonsense for the State to pay £200 per year to parents for raising their children through Irish, and to then refuse to provide a doctor or nurse in the local hospital to speak to the children in Irish when they have an accident or fall ill," he said in Irish.
"It is nonsense to give people grants to speak Irish through the Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, and at the same time to make it almost impossible for the same people to get services through Irish from the Tax Office, Department of Social Welfare, or any other State Department or county council."