An urgent review of Irish language education in primary and secondary schools, which costs the State €500 million annually, has been called for in the first annual report by the Irish language commissioner, Seán Ó Cuirreáin.
He said such a review was essential if the State was committed to promoting Irish in every aspect of national life.
Serious questions about that commitment were raised in the report, which found that less than 1 per cent of Dáil and Seanad debates were conducted in Irish last year.
Some 20 public bodies were in breach of statutory obligations in relation to the first language.
The report by an coimisinéir teanga noted that many pupils have not even attained basic fluency in Irish after almost 1,500 hours of tuition over a 13-year period.
The estimated €500 million annual cost of this was "non-saveable" in that it included teachers' salaries and school expenses, Mr Ó Cuirreáin said at a press conference yesterday in Galway.
He said even students who achieved high grades in Irish in their final exams found the spoken language a struggle. Teachers should not carry all the blame for this, and a comprehensive review of teaching and learning was required - along with a public debate.
The commissioner's office is effectively the "ombudsman" for Irish language issues, including monitoring of the 2003 Official Languages Act's implementation.
The report said it dealt with 304 complaints relating to service through Irish from public bodies in its first year, including the scarcity of speech therapy services in Irish for children in the Connemara Gaeltacht.
The former western health board informed the commissioner that there was only one speech therapist working through Irish, three days a week, for up to 100 children in the Connemara Gaeltacht. A plan to deal with the issue had been drawn up by health board staff, but no funding had been agreed for this by the end of last year.
Most common complaints included forms being supplied in English only; replies in English to correspondence in Irish; lack of Irish in signage and advertisements; lack of Irish on roadsigns; negative or antagonistic attitudes displayed by officials towards providing services in Irish; official identity cards only being available in English; and problems with the use of name or address in Irish.
In one case a taxi owner could not get a National Car Testing (NCT) certificate because the vehicle displayed the Irish word "tacsaí". The Department of Transport agreed immediately to amend the relevant statutory instrument when this anomaly was pointed out.
Mr Ó Cuirreáin said the issue had resonances with a case taken by Patrick Pearse a century ago.
Pearse, a qualified legal counsel, represented a Co Donegal man who was charged with having his name and address in Irish instead of English on his horse-drawn cart.
The report welcomed media analysis of the State's language policy, but suggested that such debates should be "founded on fact and truth, rather than speculation and guesswork".
The Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) said yesterday the concerns raised by the commissioner were "not new". Some 81 per cent of primary teachers had warned in an INTO report 20 years ago that results in schools did not reflect the effort being put in by teachers.
An Coimisinéir Teanga: Tuasascáil Tionschnaimh 2004 is available on website www.coimisineir.ie or by phoning lo-call number 1890 504 006.
