Ombudsman seeks review of Irish teaching

An urgent review of how the Irish language is taught in schools should be carried out, a report published today said.

The office of the Ombudsman for Irish (An Coimisinéir Teanga) said that there was a question mark over whether the State was getting an adequate return on its investment of €500 million for the teaching of the language.

Speaking at the publication of the office's his first annual report, Ombudsman Seán Ó Cuirreáin noted that although pupils get nearly 1,500 hours of tuition in Irish over 13 years, many do not achieve even basic fluency.

"This clearly raises the question: is the State getting value for money from this investment, if it is true that so many are going through the educational system without achieving a reasonable command of the language - even in the case of students who succeed in getting a high grade in Irish in their final examinations?"

Mr Ó Cuirreáin said he believes an urgent review is needed of how the language is taught - including a review of the curriculum, teaching methods and the textbooks and aids used in the classroom.

The report was also critical of the use of Irish in the Oireachtas. It said that less than 1 per cent of debates in the Dáil were conducted in Irish.

"If the language continues to be marginalised and sidelined like this in the most important institutions in the life of the country, it is difficult to imagine that it will not have grave implications for the future viability of the language," he said.

More than 300 complaints were made to the Ombudsman with the most common the supply of forms in English only. Responses from public bodies in English to inquiries made in Irish resulted in 13 per cent of complaints. The next most common cause of complaint was the lack of Irish on road signs.

Just under three-quarters of all complaints came from non-Gaeltacht areas with the majority of complainants based in Dublin.

Some twenty public bodies, have been identified as not having complied with their statutory obligation to publish annual reports simultaneously in both languages. These included the Department of Justice, the Department of Health and the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources.

The Ombudsman was appointed on February 23rd, 2004, as part of the recommendations of the Official Languages Act, which is being introduced on a phased basis.