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The money wasted on making every student in the country learn the Irish language would be far better spend by making Irish optional and putting Computer programming on the Leaving cert again as optional. I know which “language” will be most appealing to students and more in common usage in the future.

That’s a fallacy – the education system generally churns out people who cannot speak the language at any competent level, and have no intention of learning how to do so.

In my opinion, the Government’s approach to Irish needs to change dramatically, but making Gaelic an optional subject is not the right course of action at all.

The problem with Irish in schools is that it’s taught as a subject rather than a language. It’s all about memorising sentences, rules and structures rather than learning things in a fluid or natural way. From my own experience, having spent most of my life learning Irish and just 5 years learning German I was far more confident at conversing in the latter.

Besides education the Government needs to get serious about Irish across the country, not just in Gaeltacht areas. They’ve been gifted with a surge in interest for Gaelscoileanna and are squandering it – one gaelscoil in Cabra (Bertie’s constituency) is only now getting a building, having worked out of mouldy pre-fabs for years. Another in Finglas is operating out of the back of an abandoned dance hall with no sign of a dedicated building at all.

They also need to encourage (but not force) private enterprise to become bilingual so Irish speakers can eventually do everything in their native tongue, rather than just Gov-related things.

Money talks – how about tax credits for private and public sector employees who complete a stringent Irish exam that asserts their fluency? Or small tax breaks for businesses for every Irish speaker they employ? Why not reward places like Tesco for their bilingual signage?

And we should stop fooling outselves too – the census figure that 1.4 m (or so) people speak Irish on a daily basis is based on hot air. Just look at the question – it makes no reference to fluency level or depth and anyone who says “pog mó hón”, “tá mé go maith” or something basic like that can claim to speak Irish every day.
The census should have an extra section on Irish with more than one or two questions. It could ask them for their perceived fluency level, the situations they use Irish in, their qualification level in Irish etc. – not just “do you speak Irish?”.