I have to say I thought the first report of Irish language ombudsman Sean Ó Cuirreáin missed the point completely. He stated that despite State spending of €500 million per annum and school children spending 1,500 hours learning Irish there is a widespread lack of ability or fluency in the language.

By putting the state of the Irish language in that context, despite his insistence that teachers should not carry all the blame, Ó Cuirreáin's words led most people to blame the schools and the teachers.

But then that's hardly surprising because for most people on this island, the only place they get an opportunity to speak the language, or even hear it being spoken, is in the classroom. Irish is synonymous with school, so who else is to blame if not the teachers?

But let's look a little more closely at it.

Ó Cuirreáin's analysis of the state of the Irish language in our society is hardly new. Twenty years ago, a report by the Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) warned that the results achieved in schools did not reflect the effort being put in by teachers.

The INTO stated clearly that the curriculum in primary schools was not suitable - the teaching methods were ineffective, the expectations were too high and the vocabulary taught was not suitable for stimulating conversation.

The latter point should have prompted immediate action, for, if the vocabulary taught was unsuitable for conversation, what was the point of teaching it in the first place?

What was the State's response in the 20 years since this warning? The first decade was spent ignoring the problem, presumably in the hope that it would go away.

During that time the stock of filmstrips that supported the teaching approach in schools was discontinued, but nothing was put in their place. The second decade was spent redesigning a new curriculum for primary schools.

During those 20 years, teachers and schools were left to cobble together what resources they could to support their Irish lessons with many taking refuge in the only resources available - textbooks.

I'll wager that the next 10 years will be spent in self-congratulation that the curriculum was introduced before it dawns on someone in officialdom that the resources to support it have not been developed and distributed to schools. Because of this insouciance we are now in a downward spiral in relation to the language. Twenty years and more of inertia have bred not only a lack of competency towards the language but widespread indifference and, in some quarters, downright hostility.

Where 20 years ago teachers identified a lack of parental support for the language, there are now demands for the introduction of a modern European language into primary schools that are often a thinly veiled move to get rid of Irish altogether.

And all the while there is an ever-decreasing use of Irish in sporting organisations, churches, cultural organisations and in political and commercial life. I bet this linguistic malaise has begun to affect teachers who for years were the custodians of the language.

Two decades ago, seven out of 10 teachers did not consider the teaching of Irish a waste of time. If that question were asked today, what would be the response?

Today, most pupils spend between three and four hours a week learning Irish in primary schools. The new emphasis is on speaking the language, using it for communication - which is what a language is for in the first place.

But I believe curriculum change has not been radical enough. At various times over the past 20 years, teachers warned that reading and writing were introduced too early in primary school. This is still happening and with disastrous results.

These aspects of Irish eat into the time available for speaking the language and because they are introduced too early there is no spoken language base on which to build reading and writing competency.

The result is all too predictable. Failure in reading and writing becomes an early feature of the system. The enthusiasm of young children for spoken Irish in infant classes thus disappears and the initial love of learning a new language is being killed off by books, spelling and grammar.

I think this also affects teachers' enthusiasm for the language. Most teachers are still reasonably enthusiastic but how long can the system rely on this when the system itself is set up for failure?

Let's admit that it is time for radical curricular reform. There should be only spoken Irish in primary school, or at least until the pupils reach fifth or sixth class.

Let's do without textbooks for that time. At second level there should be three Irish courses - Irish language, Irish literature and Irish cultural studies.

The first could be for students who want to continue to use it as a language only. The second could be for those who want to have a greater engagement with the language and study the literature in detail. The third would give children a pride and a sense of place in the Ireland of today without having to do it through the medium of Irish. Thus not every student would be forced to endure the same texts. Peig was never everyone's cup of tea!