Nothing wrong with Irish as EU language

Regarding Barry Walsh’s reply to my letter on Irish in the EU, may I point out that the EU has 24 official languages, including not only world languages such as English, French and German, but also smaller national languages such as Irish, Latvian and Maltese.

The total EU translation budget is less than €2 per EU citizen per year for all 24 EU languages. The figure of €800m per annum covers all 24 EU languages, not just Irish. This is a budget to which Ireland contributed before Irish became an official EU language and to which we would contribute if Irish were not an official EU language. There is no saving to be had here.

A cornerstone of the European project is linguistic and cultural tolerance and diversity. Because of this EU laws are made available in all EU languages. Cases in Irish are not uncommon in the Irish courts, especially the superior courts, and EU law is often invoked in these cases. The Irish texts are not museum pieces but part of the range of this living and working European language.