Almost half of Irish people 'speak fluent Irish', claims survey

Almost half of respondents to a recent survey have claimed that they can speak Irish fluently.

Some 47% of the 1,000 people surveyed, from each of the four provinces, by research company iReach for lastminute.com, said they were able to speak the Irish language.

Three in four people (78%) claimed to have spoken Irish it at some point in the past year.

The group with the greatest command of the language were 18-25 year-olds, with more than half (56%) maintaining that they could speak it fluently.

Conducted to coincide with Seachtain na Gaeilge and St. Patrick’s Day, the survey also found that under a fifth (17%) cannot remember when they last spoke Irish.

Just 5% claimed that they last spoke Irish for their Leaving Certificate.