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Irish MEP's have responded the League's call to use Irish Gaelic more frequently in the European Parliament, after reports towards the end of last year showed that only a minority of Member's were taking advantage of the official status of the language at a European level, leading to spiralling costs.
The League argued, in letters to all 16 Irish MEP's, that if the Irish Gaelic translation services currently available were not used to their full capacity by the MEP's, when debating issues at the European Parliament, a drop in funding may result for these services in the future.
The European Parliament is expected to carry out a review of the translation services available for the official languages being used in the Parliament in the next few years, to ascertain their value for money. If it is found that Irish Gaelic is not used enough by the Irish MEP's and their staff, this could have a subsequent knock on effect for the other Celtic languages in their campaigns for their own languages to be made official EU languages.
Fianna Fáil's Liam Aylward MEP commented that he appreciated the League's concerns about this issue and stated that even though he uses Gaelic in the Parliament on a regular basis, he has had to deal extensively with "a critical Irish media in the last few weeks".
The League suggested in its letters to the Irish MEP's that if they could not speak Irish, then they should make every effort to learn the language during the UN Year of International Languages 2008.
The Independent Kathy Sinnott MEP admitted that when campaigning to make Irish Gaelic an official working language of the EU, she used the little Gaelic she knew on various occasions, but after the language was granted official status she reverted to her habitual English. Sinnott goes on to say:
"I have already alerted my staff who have Irish and who can help me that I will in future be trying to include at least a sentence of Irish in my speeches. As I speak in debate several times every plenary, I hope that this will be of some help."
The other MEP's, who don't use Irish Gaelic in the European Parliament or don't know the language very well, should heed Sinnott's example. It was reported in Irish Examiner newspaper at the end of last month that six Irish MEP's have never used Irish in speeches in the Parliament - Mary Lou McDonald, Gay Mitchell, Mairéad McGuinness, Avril Doyle, Eoin Ryan and Kathy Sinnott, with Colm Burke only speaking one sentence in it. Currently Fianna Fáil MEP's have the best record for using Irish Gaelic in the EP.
Last month Sinn Féin MEP, Bairbre de Brún said in response to a statement by Ulster Unionist MEP Jim Nicholson criticising the use of the Irish language in the European Parliament:
"Mr Nicholson is… aware that the European Parliament functions somewhat differently to the national parliaments or to the Assembly. The bulk of the work on legislation and other reports is carried out in committee for which as yet no interpretation from Irish is available. There are 785 MEPs in the European Parliament, which sits in plenary session for about four days per month.
Speaking time is at a premium and speeches in plenary regularly last only a minute or two. Comments on the amount of time MEPs spoke in Irish or indeed in any other of the smaller languages need to be seen in this context. The European Parliament has consistently voted to continue to use all languages and not just the major ones."
Nicholson suggested that a review of the use of the official languages in the European Parliament be brought forward, leading to Bairbre de Brún arguing that Nicholson's comments were a "publicity stunt in line with his party's tirade against the Irish language in the Assembly."
She added:
"I shall continue to speak Irish in the European parliament as I did in the Assembly and to lobby for those Irish speakers who do not have legislative protections as yet in the six counties. I hope that in time Jim Nicholson can come to respect the multilingual ethos of the EU and to represent that openly and fairly to all his constituents."
Meanwhile, in October 2007 the European Commission told the Irish Government that unless more properly qualified Irish translators and interpreters could be found, Irish Gaelic would be undermined as an official EU language. The Irish Government's plan to introduce English for half an hour every day into Irish medium schools won't help matters.
See also related article on Celtic News at :
J B Moffatt Director of Information Celtic League
12/02/08
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