There was a huge protest on Saturday in Dublin, called Cearta. The streets were dearg le fearg with 25,000 people coming out to demand action on funding for the Irish language and the Gaeltacht as well as action on education, the housing crisis and language rights. The turnout speaks to, on the one hand, a moment for the Irish language of a renewal or resurgence from below, with more and more parents wanting to send their children to Irish-medium schools, for example, and a complete failure of the Government to act on the other. We have historically low levels of funding for the Gaeltacht, an absence of investment in the Irish language and a continuation of the crisis. The budget is two weeks away. Will action be taken in line with the wishes of all those on the protest and, I believe, the wishes of the majority of people in the country? Will the State and the Government recognise the historic inequality of baseline level funding for the Irish language and the Gaeltacht and the resulting negative impact that has had on the realisation of language rights for the public over many years? Will the funding gap be addressed? The figures are striking. In 1956, only 0.15% of total State expenditure in the South was on the Irish language and the Gaeltacht. In the past number of years, this has fallen to just 0.1% for the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht. An Plean Fáis 2024-2029 has been agreed and endorsed by over 130 Irish language, Gaeltacht and other groups, to tackle the impact of unequal funding, but will the Government agree to fund it? Will it agree to provide €55 million in additional funding for the Irish language and the Gaeltacht, based on the proposals in An Plean Fáis? For example, Foras na Gaeilge, taking into account the effect of inflation, has 45% less funding than it had 20 years ago, while the number of community groups it is in turn funding has grown significantly over the same period. Does the Government agree that Foras na Gaeilge needs to be properly funded? The housing crisis is right across the country, but it is particularly acute in Gaeltacht areas. The figures are striking. There are approximately 1,000 Airbnbs available in Gaeltacht areas and ten properties available to rent on daft.ie or whatever platform. This is a housing crisis, but it is also a language crisis as a result. There are only slightly more than 20,000 daily Irish speakers in the Gaeltacht. This is evidence of a 12.8% reduction in the number of such speakers between 2011 and 2022. If young people growing up in the Gaeltacht cannot find somewhere to live in the Gaeltacht, if they cannot find affordable, decent accommodation, they will not be able to stay there and that will cause a crisis for our Gaeltacht communities. Will the Government agree to provide Údarás na Gaeltachta with the power to purchase land or property for housing and social and cultural facilities? Will the Government agree to provide additional funding to Údarás na Gaeltachta to establish a housing department to facilitate a Gaeltacht population and housing strategy for each Gaeltacht language planning area?

Sentiment score: -0.07

I dealt with funding and housing to some degree in the introduction, so I might now deal with education and language rights, which are the other two features of the protest and the demands of the movement. The striking thing in education is the mismatch between parents' aspirations and wishes and the reality of school availability. Almost one in four parents say that if they had the option in their local community of sending their children to an Irish-medium school, they would do so. The previous Government pledged to work towards doubling the number of pupils attending Irish-medium education, but the numbers actually fell by 3%. More parents than ever are saying they would like to send their children to Irish-medium education, and the numbers are falling. Only 6% of pupils receive education through Irish. This in contrast to Wales. The more I learn about the struggle for the Irish language today, the more I see that Wales is a consistent example of how things should be done. In Wales, currently 23% of children go to school through Welsh and there is a plan that 40% will by 2050. It is a clear, ambitious and measurable goal. What we need from the Government is a similar target, to have an ambitious target - for example 20% over a period of 20 years - and then provide for that with funding and legislation. Similarly, there are 50,000 children in secondary school who are exempt from learning Irish and there is no plan whatsoever to address that. We have a national plan for Irish language public services, which was published in 2024, but we have no plan for its implementation. When will the action plan to implement that be published? Will it include such things as the Common European Framework of Reference, CEFR, being implemented in the education system, Irish language courses aligned with the CEFR, increasing the number of third level courses through Irish from less than 1% to 5%, the establishment of a scheme to provide Irish language courses aligned with that and increasing the provision of education, which I spoke about?

Sentiment score: 0.03