Minister Conor Murphy, Janet Muller of Pobal, Belfast Lord Mayor Tom Hartley and Raidió Fáilte head Feargus Ó hÍr at the launch of the new multilingual services from the Department of Regional Development.
Listening to DRD public service ads in Irish on Raidió Fáilte yesterday — in relation to free travel for over-sixties — reminds me of the significant strides forward made by Minister Murphy's department in serving Irish speakers and puts in stark contrast the failure of other departments to do likewise (I see yesterday John O'Dowd of Sinn Féin tackling health minister Michael McGimpsey over his refusal to allow correct Irish spellings on medical cards — an indication of how far we have yet to go).
Here's what I mark up as advances made by Minister Murphy:
- introduced Irish onto departmental stationary
- erected an official bilingual sign outside DRD HQ
- Offered language courses to all civil servants
- assigned those with Irish to undertake duties using the language
- introduced a multi-lingual website
- introduced all public application forms/information leaflets as Gaeilge
- undertaken along with his advisor a one week crash course at the world-class Oideas Gael course in Gleann Colm Cille, Donegal.
- introduced departmental advertising as Gaeilge in various media forms to ensure speakers have full and equal access to services. (Sadly, not enough to save Lá Nua but it was a help. Ironically, word that other departments were to introduce similar policies — including Agriculture and Education putting regular public notice ads in Lá came as the paper was closing down. Dominic Bradley of the SDLP did similar good work to encourage Minister Margaret Ritchie's DSD department to advertise in Irish, but nothing came of his efforts.)
- instructed Translink as public transport provider to introduce timetables as gaeilge across the north where requested, school bus saftey workshops facilitated by speakers and sponsored by Translink, the introduction to city guide to Belfast for tourists as gaeilge (new bus stops as gaeilge will also be introduced alongside destination information/announcements on buses as gaeilge) - this package was launched in October by GA + CM
- Jake Mac Saicais, head of Forbairt Feirste was appointed to the government's external advisory board on the review of the regional development strategy - the North's blueprint for the next 15 yrs.
- Minister Murphy will bring forward a paper to the executive this year proposing to introduce a limited amount of road signs across the north.
- invited POBAL to work alongside departmental officials in supporting his efforts on an ongoing basis.
3 comments:
too little too late. All the Irish language official forms and websites won't replace a living Irish language newspaper. Tá port Shinn Féin seinnte ó thaobh na Gaeilge de agus níor cheart do Ghaeil a bheith ag gabhail leithscéal ar shon an phairtí.
If all these government Departments were going to place adverts in La Nua, they would have done so long ago -- not annoucing two weeks too late after they buried La Nua.
While Minister Murphy is to be congratulated for doing a little something to help advance the language this smells a little too disengenuous.
Minister Conor Murphy's changes are long overdue, and one must give him credit for showing the initiative.
On the other hand why implement changes favouring the language when the Department of Education is forcing Irish schools to shut down which will result in fewer Irish speakers to avail themselves of Conor Murhphy's changes 10 years from now?
I do not quite understand the rationale.
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