Official Languages Act Review (2011/early 2012)

[Darren J. Prior]

There is a review taking place on the Official Languages Act (2003) at the moment. Minister of State at the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Dinny McGinley is taking submissions from the public on the review up until the end of January and the review is being carried out across all Government Departments. Alan Shatter has already got the requirement that Oireachtas Bills have to be published bilingually at the same time changed so that Bills can be published in English initially thereby faster.
Although it may not be feasible legally I would personally have no problem in seeing the end of most Oireachtas Bills, annual reports and County Development Plans being translated into Irish.
The Office of An Coimisinéir Teanga (The Language Commissioner) was set up under the Act. The Office is due to be merged with the Office of The Ombudsman
Under the OLA all new street signage has to have both the Irish and English street-names displayed equally. I want to see the relevant naming policy in the Department of Transport changed so that new road signage does also.
I hope a lot of posters aware of this review and reading this thread contact Min. Dinny McGinley. Perhaps along with contacting him we can debate what should and shouldn't be in the OLA post-review here?

[ocoonassa]

I'd like to see more signs saying Arbeit Macht Frei

[Dylan2010]

darn it, I knew thats where they were going wrong, the street signs its so obvious now

[Killerbank]

This idiotic piece of legislation was championed by Ned O'Keeffe (Eamonn O Cuiv). Originally when in Bill form, it was called the The Languages Equality Act which seemed plausible enough. However by the time it was passed into law it had been changed to The Official Languages Act thus revealing its true intent which was to force the use of the Irish language on everyone.This act gives power to the many people who like to pretend that the Irish Language really is the "first official language" in Ireland. As a result we have the obsessive-compulsive use of Irish names for virtually all new bodies set up by the state and on all ceremonial occasions such as that recent Gaeilge-fest: the inauguration of An t-Uachtaran. We have media reference to the Seanad instead of to the Senate. We have distracting bilingual roadsigns, confusing bilingual bus and train destination plates and pointless bilingual websites of state funded organisations and of course we have the monolingual "LANA BUS" signs all over the road of the city. It seems the enthusiasts of the Irish Language cannot resist doing what they have always done since the inception of the state - ramming the Irish Language down the throats of everyone. But, apart from irritating anybody who is not a committed Gaelgeor, all of this exercise in fantasy will not have any effect on the fact that the English Language has been our language of choice for over six generations and will continue to be no matter now much the Eamonn OCuivs of this world pretend otherwise.

[ger12]

This idiotic piece of legislation was championed by Ned O'Keeffe (Eamonn O Cuiv). Originally when in Bill form, it was called the The Languages Equality Act which seemed plausible enough. However by the time it was passed into law it had been changed to The Official Languages Act thus revealing its true intent which was to force the use of the Irish language on everyone.This act gives power to the many people who like to pretend that the Irish Language really is the "first official language" in Ireland. As a result we have the obsessive-compulsive use of Irish names for virtually all new bodies set up by the state and on all ceremonial occasions such as that recent Gaeilge-fest: the inauguration of An t-Uachtaran. We have media reference to the Seanad instead of to the Senate. We have distracting bilingual roadsigns, confusing bilingual bus and train destination plates and pointless bilingual websites of state funded organisations and of course we have the monolingual "LANA BUS" signs all over the road of the city. It seems the enthusiasts of the Irish Language cannot resist doing what they have always done since the inception of the state - ramming the Irish Language down the throats of everyone. But, apart from irritating anybody who is not a committed Gaelgeor, all of this exercise in fantasy will not have any effect on the fact that the English Language has been our language of choice for over six generations and will continue to be no matter now much the Eamonn OCuivs of this world pretend otherwise.

I guess Irish speakers just got fed up with English being rammed down their throats. The Official Languages Act 2003 is to increase and improve, over a period of time, the quantity and quality of services provided for the public through Irish by public bodies.

[RainyDay]

It is largely a 'make-work' scheme to keep all that translation work at 10c a word going to the Gaelgeoir community.

[Killerbank]

I guess Irish speakers just got fed up with English being rammed down their throats. The Official Languages Act 2003 is to increase and improve, over a period of time, the quantity and quality of services provided for the public through Irish by public bodies.

." an official spokesperson said."

[cytex]

This idiotic piece of legislation was championed by Ned O'Keeffe (Eamonn O Cuiv). Originally when in Bill form, it was called the The Languages Equality Act which seemed plausible enough. However by the time it was passed into law it had been changed to The Official Languages Act thus revealing its true intent which was to force the use of the Irish language on everyone.This act gives power to the many people who like to pretend that the Irish Language really is the "first official language" in Ireland. As a result we have the obsessive-compulsive use of Irish names for virtually all new bodies set up by the state and on all ceremonial occasions such as that recent Gaeilge-fest: the inauguration of An t-Uachtaran. We have media reference to the Seanad instead of to the Senate. We have distracting bilingual roadsigns, confusing bilingual bus and train destination plates and pointless bilingual websites of state funded organisations and of course we have the monolingual "LANA BUS" signs all over the road of the city. It seems the enthusiasts of the Irish Language cannot resist doing what they have always done since the inception of the state - ramming the Irish Language down the throats of everyone. But, apart from irritating anybody who is not a committed Gaelgeor, all of this exercise in fantasy will not have any effect on the fact that the English Language has been our language of choice for over six generations and will continue to be no matter now much the Eamonn OCuivs of this world pretend otherwise.

Actually it is people like yourself that like to ram English down everybody throats . The inaguration was mostly in english so have no idea why the less than 10% of his speech that was in gaeilge bothers you.

The official names of the goverment bodies is as gaeilge that is the tradtion in this state and nothing to do with people ramming gaeilge down your throat or this act.
If mono lingual signs bother you now is your time to speak up and say that all signs should be in both english and as gaeilge equal rights for both languages of this state.

boy do you have a chip on his shoulder.

[pippakin]

I think this is the one issue when both sides are right. Its right that the Irish language should be maintained and taught in schools on an equal basis with English. Its wrong that people who are not very good at it can't even apply for jobs, its wrong that everything, road signs etc. should be duplicated, at enormous expense, when the government and everyone else knows the English language version will be fully understood.

Its a pity the Irish language has been so politicised. The effect has been to force people to listen to very badly spoken Irish, which has put people off, and why should Irish/English be resented here? The Irish have made it their own distinctly different from anything else language and what's more are better than most at using it.

[ger12]

I think this is the one issue when both sides are right. Its right that the Irish language should be maintained and taught in schools on an equal basis with English. Its wrong that people who are not very good at it can't even apply for jobs, its wrong that everything, road signs etc. should be duplicated, at enormous expense, when the government and everyone else knows the English language version will be fully understood.

Its a pity the Irish language has been so politicised. The effect has been to force people to listen to very badly spoken Irish, which has put people off, and why should Irish/English be resented here? The Irish have made it their own distinctly different from anything else language and what's more are better than most at using it.

But shouldn't we ensure that the Government is able to provide services to English - and Irish -speaking Irish people in the language of their choice?