€700k Teaching Irish Abroad

[Outlander]

State pays €700,000 to teach Irish in colleges overseas - National News, Frontpage - Independent.ie

UNIVERSITIES across the globe are being grant-aided by the Government to get more people speaking Irish.
From Poland to the Czech Republic and across the Atlantic to North America, third-level institutions are receiving a total of €700,000 this year to promote Irish.

Meanwhile, just under €700,000 was paid out last year to families in the Gaeltacht who are fluent in Irish.
Sceim Labhairt na Gaeilge provides for a grant of €260 per household in the Gaeltacht where Irish is the normal spoken language.

Is is time that the national vanity project tightened it's belt?

[Pauli]

This nonsense should be either re-directed to the Gaeltacht in Ireland or scrapped. Personally, I'd favour scrapping. So much time, effort, energy and money is spent on the Irish language producing little tangible in the way of concrete results.

[LeftOfCentre]

I am generally very critical of any spending on the irish language . . . .

But 700 k is a pittance . . . . and Is just one of those figures that sounds a lot

Making a big deal of this is like working out how much government departments spend on toilet paper each year .... It will sound a a lot when compared say to one persons salary ... but it's not much really, and is hardly worth noting at all.

[/etc]

seriously, i wouldnt consider it excessive at all to spend €700,000 a year to promote the language overseas, even though we are broke.

[BodyofEvidence]

seriously, i wouldnt consider it excessive at all to spend €700,000 a year to promote the language overseas, even though we are broke.

you fecking well pay for it so.....

[Oppenheimer]

State pays €700,000 to teach Irish in colleges overseas - National News, Frontpage - Independent.ie

Meanwhile, just under €700,000 was paid out last year to families in the Gaeltacht who are fluent in Irish.
Sceim Labhairt na Gaeilge provides for a grant of €260 per household in the Gaeltacht where Irish is the normal spoken language.

Is is time that the national vanity project tightened it's belt?

Why the fk are people getting grants just for yapping in a different language....I get the overseas promotion somewhat, but giving money to people who already are fluent......wtf? This should be grants to subsidise those who would like to learn it but in the normal course of their day cannot easily access the language.

At least €10 of that domestic grant should be used to buy some of these idiots a clue....hint: If you spend you money on those who cannot speak the language instead of those who do you will ADD to the numbers speaking.

[BodyofEvidence]

Oppenheimer : you wont. We have spent tens of billions on the ole gaeilge over the decades to feck all advantage to man or beast. LET IT DIE.....

[Riadach]

Why the fk are people getting grants just for yapping in a different language....I get the overseas promotion somewhat, but giving money to people who already are fluent......wtf? This should be grants to subsidise those who would like to learn it but in the normal course of their day cannot easily access the language.

At least €10 of that domestic grant should be used to buy some of these idiots a clue....hint: If you spend you money on those who cannot speak the language instead of those who do you will ADD to the numbers speaking.

Or potentially lose the ones who are already fluent. I think a large part of the problem here is that governments have been creating projects wil he nil he over the past 80 years, to give the appearance of promoting the language, but the projects were ill-thought out, poorly planned, and could be doing more harm than good. However, the government now has itself in knots, it is unsure what it can remove and what it can keep as it hasn't a clue what is (barely) sustaining Irish in Gaeltacht areas. It's afraid of removing the one jenga piece that will make the tower fall. For instance, I would be afraid of removing Irish from the curriculum in secondary level, as I'm not sure how many Gaeltacht jobs and incomes have become dependent on it, or how much Irish is dependent on it at an academic level. Obviously an audit has to be carried out, obviously one has to be able to see what works and what doesn't, have have monies allocated to the Irish language spent effectively or used elsewhere. Foresight, lateral thinking and cop on are required, qualities sadly lacking in the upper echelons of the Fianna Fáil party.

[Oppenheimer]

Or potentially lose the ones who are already fluent. I think a large part of the problem here is that governments have been creating projects wil he nil he over the past 80 years, to give the appearance of promoting the language, but the projects were ill-thought out, poorly planned, and could be doing more harm than good. However, the government now has itself in knots, it is unsure what it can remove and what it can keep as it hasn't a clue what is (barely) sustaining Irish in Gaeltacht areas. It's afraid of removing the one jenga piece that will make the tower fall. For instance, I would be afraid of removing Irish from the curriculum in secondary level, as I'm not sure how many Gaeltacht jobs and incomes have become dependent on it, or how much Irish is dependent on it at an academic level. Obviously an audit has to be carried out, obviously one has to be able to see what works and what doesn't, have have monies allocated to the Irish language spent effectively or used elsewhere. Foresight, lateral thinking and cop on are required, qualities sadly lacking in the upper echelons of the Fianna Fáil party.

I don't understand how you can "lose" someone who is already fluent. I have personal experience of having put my kids' names down for a Gaelscoil and being told that we had little chance of success as they were not from an Irish speaking home - way to go to add to the numbers no. 1! I have a reasonable level, higher level Leaving Cert. though have not had the practice, but considered that, if the kids were speaking at school I'd get back into it - way to go to add to the numbers no. 2!

[MsAnneThrope]

This issue raises the whole 'value for money' question of our spend on the Irish language. I agree 100% with Oppenheimer that giving grants to people who already speak Irish would be better spent on those who don't speak Irish but want to learn it.

In the current economic climate I think there is a strong case for a review of the Official Languages Act 2003, which was drawn up when we were flush with money, just as all other areas of Government spend are supposedly "on the table" according to Brian Lenihan. It is a fact that a lot of money is being spent translating documents into Irish and not a single person requests or reads these translations.

John Deasy highlighted this at the end of 2007 saying "State translation policy a blatant waste of money"

On Monday, this paper reported how Cork County Council spent almost €90,000 having local development plans translated, but did not receive a single request for a copy in Irish.

Similarly, in Waterford, an Irish version of the county development plan cost €26,000, and again, there were no requests to see it.

Translation costs for councils are set to rise in the next few years as most county development and local area plans come up for renewal, bringing them for the first time under the remit of the Official Languages Act, which requires an Irish translation. The act also applies to Government departments and state agencies.

I still maintain that [Community Minister Éamon Ó Cuív’s] department had no clue as to how much it would cost when the bill was drafted. It will cost tens of millions. Instead of preventing waste, department spokespeople are saying that that amounts to a public service. Effectively they are saying that wasting money is a public service.

There was uproar in Waterford recently over Chopper Cullen's 8k helicopter bill but its peanuts compared to what is being spent translating documents into Irish that nobody ever sees or reads. If Cork spent 90k in 2007 on just local development plans (not to mention all the other documents must be translated) I shudder to think what Dublin spends, plus the bills for all the other counties.

I'm all in favour of preservation of our language (I spent a lot of my childhood in a Gaeltacht area and attended Gaeltacht schools) but the Official Languages Act of 2003 is too pressing and needs revision in my opinion. I'm sure they can cut back on a lot of the documents that currently must be translated into Irish.

It was a romantic idea when we were rolling in money but not practical in the current environment in my opinion.