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Evident that neither the Irish language or the Gaeltacht were a priority again in the Government's 2020 Budget

The Government still has the opportunity to provide fairness in the revised estimates before Christmas

Conradh na Gaeilge is calling on the Irish Government to provide fairness for the Irish language and the Gaeltacht and to give a satisfactory increase to them in the revised estimates to come after the budget.

Niall Comer, President of Conradh na Gaeilge, said: “Fairness for the Irish language and the Gaeltacht is not be seen in the budget 2020 announced by the Government today, especially when it’s taken in to account that the extra allocation of €5 million announced for the Arts Council alone in 2020 is double the allocation of €2.4 million announced for the Irish language, the Gaeltacht, the Islands and Foras na Gaeilge all put together. We have no problem with additional funding for the arts, and we welcome this increase, but there should also be fairness for the Irish language and for the Gaeltacht”.

Julian de Spáinn, General Secretary of Conradh na Gaeilge, said: “There has been a pattern in recent years of an imbalance of funding for the Irish language and the Gaeltacht compared to other parts of the same Department. The Government had the opportunity to rectify this in the 2020 budget but didn’t take it. For example, there was an opportunity to provide Údarás na Gaeltachta with adequate funding to create jobs in the Gaeltacht, particularly with all the risks associated with Brexit coming to the fore at the moment, but this opportunity was not acted upon. We are calling on the Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, TD, to take action in the revised estimates which will be published before Christmas”.

Conradh na Gaeilge is also calling on the public to speak to their national public representatives to achieve fairness in the revised estimates.

 

Further information:

Julian de Spáinn,

General Secretary.

086 8142757

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Peadar Mac Fhlannchadha,

Deputy General Secretary / Advocavy Manager  

087 4188050

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Róisín Ní Mhaoláin,

Communications Executive

087 6338931

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Conradh na Gaeilge

6 Harcourt Street, Dublin 2.
Phone: +353 (0) 1 475 7401, Fax: +353 (0) 1 475 7844, Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.