Gaelic language to be promoted by council
A plan to support the promotion of the Gaelic language in Renfrewshire over the next five years has been given the nod.
Elected members on the council’s leadership board have approved the strategy for 2024 to 2029 for publication.
Work will focus on increasing the use of Gaelic within the organisation and encouraging more people to use it in their interactions with the local authority.
It also intends to boost the opportunity for people to learn the language as part of its dayto-day working and promote a positive image of it whenever possible as a council.
Councillor Gillian Graham, Labour group education spokesperson, welcomed the “well-written” document and commended officers. She also asked if more information could be provided on costs associated with the plan.
The representative for Johnstone North and the surrounding villages, below right, said: “I appreciate the timescales are provided for these aims in the majority of cases.
“Costs are not provided, they may not be known at this point and I’m fairly sure that Bòrd na Gàidhlig doesn’t require a Gaelic plan to have costs included, but it’s public money and it would be helpful to have any expenditure relating to the Gaelic plan clearly identified during the course of its timescales.”
Laura McIntyre, the council’s head of policy and partnerships, is the chair of an oversight group for the plan, which includes representatives from different council services and partners such as OneRen. She said: “There are aspects in terms of education we potentially could include, whereas a lot of other areas we try to look at those in terms of replacements, so there’s no additional cost.
“There’s examples within the report around signage, so when some of our infrastructure around signage is replaced, we would look to replace that and incorporate Gaelic at the same time, so there’s no additional cost. It’s something that the group would like to be a bit more thorough [with] and I suppose try and provide more information to members, so when we come back with future updates, we’ll specifically try to include further information around cost.”
In November 2022, the leadership board approved a draft plan for 2022 to 2027, which was submitted to Bòrd na Gàidhlig – the principal public body in Scotland responsible for promoting Gaelic development – for ratification.
Following ongoing consultation and engagement with the Bòrd, the plan was updated to reflect its requirements and the current Renfrewshire position, particularly in light of the success of the Royal National Mòd last year.
The council’s high-level aims within the plan include increasing the use and learning of Gaelic and promoting a positive image of the language.
It intends to actively promote its use in communication with the public, continue to encourage participation in learning at all levels and make parents aware of their right to request Gaelic medium education for their child.