THE British and Irish governments had been "pretty pathetic" in their response to recommendations for the promotion of the Irish language from the British Irish Inter Parliamentary Body, the British Labour MP, Mr Roger Stott, said yesterday.
"I feel very strongly as an Englishman that the Irish language should be preserved and that both governments should do all that they can to facilitate the preservation of that language," he told delegates to the BIIPB's biannual plenary session.
He criticised what he saw as the politicisation of the language.
"The Irish language, as opposed to the other languages on these islands, has been hijacked by the republicans and it's seen to be a republican nationalist language," he said.
Mr Stott was speaking in a debate on a report of the BIIPB's culture, education and environment committee, of which he is a member, entitled "North South Co-operation in the Arts, Culture and Sport".
"In the past, we have made reference to this subject in other reports that my committee of this body has produced and I have to say that both governments' responses have been pretty pathetic. I hope on this occasion that when this report has been published and agreed by this body that both governments will take more consideration of what we're saying than they have done in the past because we feel very strongly about this matter", Mr Stott said.
The report recognised "the need to depoliticise the language" and added: "We hope that the British government, working through the Northern Ireland Office and Irish language groups, will seek to do this and then take a more active role in promoting the use of the Irish language and the development of Irish language schools."