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<h1>Coalition parties come to the céilí with empty hands </h1>
<h2> Not a red cent or a pingin rua for Irish in Fine Gael manifesto </h2>
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about 24 hours ago
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<span>Seán Tadhg Ó Gairbhí</span></span>
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<a class="" href="http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/treibh/coalition-parties-come-to-the-c%C3%A9il%C3%AD-with-empty-hands-1.2539869#comments">
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<img title="grianghraf: alan betson/the irish times" alt="grianghraf: alan betson/the irish times" class="" src="http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2539868.1455810745%21/image/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/box_620_330/image.jpg" height="330" width="620"> <p>grianghraf: alan betson/the irish times</p>
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<div class=""><a class=""> </a></div>Fine Gael
are regarded by many Irish speakers as having a less-than-stellar record
on the language over the past five years, and judging by their election
manifesto it is not a reputation they seem unduly concerned about.</div></div>
<p class="">In fact, the only real boast their manifesto makes in
relation to Irish is that they managed to find an extra €1m for Údarás
na Gaeltachta following last November’s budget. </p>
<p class="">To be fair to the party, I found it equally difficult
to recall any other achievements they might have mentioned, and I may
well have been paying closer attention to government policy on Irish
than either of the government parties.</p>
<p class="">They could have, I suppose, if only by way of some
light relief from the jargon and plámás, have added that they made
Gaeltacht Minister Joe McHugh learn Irish.</p>
<p class="">Straight off we learn that Fine Gael is “committed to
systematically implementing the 20-Year Strategy for the Irish
language” which, sadly, has become manifesto-speak shorthand for “we
couldn’t really think of anything to say, so we’ll give them the old
line about the 20-Year Strategy”.</p>
<p class="">There is not a single tangible promise of extra
resources or funding. Not a red cent, or a pingin rua even. Would they,
for example, manage to spirit another cool million for the Údarás from
down the back of the fiscal couch in 2017? We are not told. </p>
<p class="">If, as we have heard during the election campaign,
‘auction politics’ is back, well nobody bothered to inform whoever came
up with Fine Gael’s Irish-language policy.</p>
<p class="">What we get instead is an insipid cocktail of vague
promises and rehashed proposals, most of which seem to have been
randomly plucked from the Department of Education’s excellent draft
policy for the reform of Gaeltacht education, which was published last
year by Labour minister Jan O’Sullivan but unfortunately did not make
the cut in time for the election. </p>
<p class="">Ten of Fine Gael’s 13 Irish-language proposals deal with education, but, remarkably, there is no mention of Gaelscoileanna. </p>
<p class="">As for that draft policy for Gaeltacht education,
Fine Gael seems to view it as no more than a useful source for election
manifesto filler. </p>
<p class="">They do not even say whether they would implement the policy if returned to power. </p>
<p class="">The party’s Irish-language policy contains a
worthwhile pledge to introduce a scholarship scheme for students from
disadvantaged areas who want to attend summer colleges, but mostly it
comes across like a particularly dull and incoherent departmental
discussion paper.</p>
<p class="">Take, for example, the following: “We will engage
with the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and Údarás na
Gaeltachta to clarify the role that education will play in complementing
the language planning processes taking place in accordance with the
Gaeltacht Act 2012.”</p>
<p class="">I have read this line a few times, and I think that
what we are essentially dealing with here is a promise that someday
somebody will contact somebody else and ask them something along the
lines of “what’s the story with education in this language-planning
process anyway?” </p>
<p class="">Elsewhere, Fine Gael boldly states that Gaeltacht
schools “should be allowed to practise total early immersion through
Irish for a period of up to two years”. </p>
<p class="">The only problem with this is that the Department of
Education has already officially sanctioned total early immersion
through Irish. </p>
<p class="">Fine Gael’s coalition partners even claim credit for the move in their manifesto, also released this week.</p>
<p class="">This week, in an interview on TG4, Enda Kenny,
answered a question about the implementation of the 20-Year Strategy by
talking about attracting cyber-security companies to the Gaeltacht.</p>
<p class="">His party’s Irish-language policy is equally
confused, a cut-and-paste job devoid of any coherent arguments or
concrete proposals. </p>
<p class="">The Labour Party manifesto’s first commitment in
regard to Irish is the jaw-dropping guarantee that they will “Protect
Irish language and culture, and our place in the world”. </p>
<p class="">And all Conradh na Gaeilge were asking for was a
senior minister, an Oireachtas committee, and a bit of extra funding for
Údarás na Gaeltachta and Foras na Gaeilge!</p>
<p class="">Like their coalition partners Labour blithely ignores
those three pre-election demands and fails to commit any extra funding
apart from a nebulous promise to “allocate more resources to implement
the strategy” and a slightly baffling undertaking “to provide funding to
Irish-speaking Gaeltacht areas to encourage those without Irish to use
the language”.</p>
<p class="">Surely if those without Irish could be encouraged to
use it, then Joan Burton could have been cajoled into accepting that
invite to debate on TG4?</p>
<p class="">Labour would also “continue the growth of
Irish-medium education” and “consider the development of second level
education through Irish”. </p>
<p class="">Note that “consider”, the elastic friend of overstretched manifesto writers everywhere.</p>
<p class="">And that is about it from Labour, save one last
gallant pitch for our award for General Election 2016’s most ludicrous
Irish-language promise: “In terms of public services, we will work to
ensure that all citizens can access all government services in Irish.”</p>
<p class="">Presumably they will also be working to ensure the establishment of global peace and an end to world hunger.</p>
<p class="">Or at least considering it.</p>
<p class="">Go n-éirí an bóthar leo ar fad.</p><p class=""><a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/treibh/coalition-parties-come-to-the-c%C3%A9il%C3%AD-with-empty-hands-1.2539869">http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/treibh/coalition-parties-come-to-the-c%C3%A9il%C3%AD-with-empty-hands-1.2539869</a><br></p><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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