New three-year plan aims to get more young people speaking Irish

Eva Osborne

A new three-year plan is being launched to get more young people speaking Irish.

It will be rolled out in primary and secondary schools and aims to foster positive attitudes towards Irish and an increased use of the language.

There will be a focus on inclusion to make sure children from diverse backgrounds and with different educational needs are included in Irish teaching.

General secretary of Conradh na Gaeilge, Julian de Spáinn, said it is welcome, but more needs to be done to tackle the decline of the language.

"We can look to other countries for lead in this," he said.

He looked to Wales and said their system focuses on having competent speakers of the language.

Speaking on Newstalk, he said: "The way you do that is having a system that's flexible, that you can test the different skills that students have.

"So, for example, a student might having a learning difficulty when it comes to writing the language, but why couldn't that student still be included instead of being excluded by the system and do the Leaving Cert based on oral Irish only?"