So many financial resources and services would have to be put in place to support full official status for the Irish language at EU level, the money would be better off being diverted into promoting the language at home. Anne Lucey reports.
This is the opinion of a leading campaigner for the status of minority languages in the EU.
Cllr Annette McNamara (FF), a member of the South West Regional Authority, is to take over the chair of the influential culture and educational commission of the EU committee of the regions in the New Year. She was responding to calls from Conradh na Gaeilge for official status for Irish.
President of the European Alliance Group, Cllr McNamara has produced a booklet to give "a blas" of the Irish language during Ireland's presidency of the EU in the New Year.
Irish already had treaty status, and the essential difference between this and working status was mainly for translation purposes, she said.
At each meeting, there would have to be three interpreters per translation box, if Irish was to have the same status as the likes of French and German.
"I would be delighted to see the translation services in place if I thought Irish would be used as a working language. But, so many financial resources and services would have to be put in place, they would be better used promoting the language among ordinary people at home."
In May, nine new languages - Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Slovene and Maltese are to become official languages, alongside English, Danish, Swedish, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Finnish, Greek and German.
This will mean 20 official languages, requiring in each case 150 new translators and interpreters. Official status would also mean EU laws and official documents would have to be issued in Irish.