Tireless worker for the Irish language

I was disappointed to hear that Seán Ó Curreáin, Language Commissioner, is to resign. Séan worked tirelessly for the Irish language and Gaeltacht communities for the past eight years in his role.

He has told us that little headway was made regarding the Irish language in our state institutions in 2012 — legislated language plans were left languishing and more plans were out of date for more than three years. This is along with the other setbacks that the language has received ie the reduced status of COGG, the Council for Education, in Irish language medium schools.

We are well aware of the Gaeltacht community’s language rights under the Official Languages Act. These rights are being denied inside our offices of state. State employees must be happy to serve us in Irish and it must be certified that public administration systems have enough staff with a working knowledge of Irish. The exemplary work by Ó Cuirreáin must be continued to ensure that we have a strong Gaeltacht community in the years to come.