Time to give equal status to Irish language

There is a huge support at home and abroad to designate Irish as an official language of the EU, writes Sam Boland

COME May, the accession of 10 new member states means that the EU will have 20 languages with official working status. EU Council regulation 1/1958 will be amended to include Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Slovene and Maltese as languages vital to the operation of the EU.

Irish, however, remains a 'treaty language' - a category that includes other minority tongues such as Flemish and Basque. The position of Irish has been the same since Ireland joined the then EEC in 1973, despite its protection in Article 8 of the Irish Constitution as the first official language of the State.