More jobs for Irish speakers

■ It is ironic that Ita O’Kelly (‘Time for a rethink on why we learn Irish’, Irish Independent, November 13) contends that we should embrace linguistic diversity and look to our European neighbours rather than look to Britain as an argument in favour of abandoning the teaching of Irish as a core subject in our schools.

Britain decided in 2004 that students would no longer have to study a foreign language up to GCSE level, with disastrous consequences. An article in the ‘Daily Telegraph’ in 2010 claimed that the study of foreign languages was in “crisis” with the majority of state secondary schools in Britain failing to teach the subject to a high level.

By removing the compulsion to teach languages in 2004, the government had signalled that languages were not a priority; in schools that were already under huge pressure for resources, precedence was therefore given to the teaching of other, “easier” subjects.

This has resulted in students in many British schools now having to choose which language they will study until Year 10 before they even start their first year in secondary school, assuming that they are even given the option of studying a language besides English.

On the other hand, the EU recognises the official status of Irish and many European institutions provide better public services in Irish than some of its national counterparts here in Ireland.

With the end of the derogation on Irish by 2019, Irish will be on par with German, French, Italian, and all the other official EU languages mentioned by Ms O’Kelly.

While not everything we do should be geared solely towards the global jobs market, this is yet another reason for Irish to remain at the core of the Irish education system as even more European employment opportunities for Irish speakers emerge in the years to come.

Dáithí Mac Cárthaigh Baile Átha Cliath 7