Irish speakers can benefit from EU official status

YOUR anti-Irish language editorial (January 21) needs to be addressed. The EU is founded on the cornerstone of diversity, in particular linguistic diversity. The number of EU official languages has grown from four in 1958 to 23 today. This involves not only the right to speak one’s official language in parliament, but also to access European laws and services in one’s official language of choice.

It also has positive implications for people with knowledge of two or more official EU languages, as this is a prerequisite for all EU jobs. More than 400,000 people use Irish on a daily basis. More than 1.6 million Irish people have knowledge of Irish. If Irish were not an official EU language, their language skills would be disregarded.

Indeed it would be difficult to invent a more effective device to disadvantage Irish people in the European job market than to remove the official status of the language.