Law will give a welcome boost to the cúpla focail

DESPITE the headaches created by Covid, spiralling price rises and any number of crises, the Government has approved legislation to give a boost to the Irish language by setting out a requirement that by 2030, one-fifth of new recruits to the public service must be Irish speakers.

The move created the predictable level of dissent on Liveline, with callers making the familiar claims about Irish either being a waste of time or a badge of the elite. Hatred of Irish stems from our bad memories of having it drummed into us at school.

The tide has turned on that aversion with the popularity of gaelscoileanna, that churn out pupils who can speak the language confidently, if not in the flawless manner that pleases the purists. The growing number of young people who like, rather than despise, their native language is possibly the only grounds for optimism we have for its survival. Many minority languages wither away and die but we should do all we can to save Irish from that fate. At the outset of his ill-fated term as Taoiseach, Brian Cowen described it as a jewel and said that preserving it would be part of his legacy.

Thirteen years later, the Government has finally taken up the baton. By providing solid career opportunities for Irish speakers, it gives a motive to the next generation of schoolchildren to keep a fading language alive.