Irish-speaking parents in Gaeltacht areas are to be targeted in a €300,000 campaign aimed at persuading them to use the national language more frequently at home.
The initiative has been announced by the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Mr Ó Cuív, and will be implemented by his department in co-operation with Údarás na Gaeltachta.
Mr Ó Cuív says TV and radio advertisements will form part of a "diverse campaign" early in the new year. However, Irish-language analyst Mr Donncha Ó hEallaithe says using such money on advertising represents a waste of funds. He says the €300,000 would be better spent on a detailed investigation into educational patterns in Gaeltacht schools.
Although Irish use is enjoying a revival among young parents, as reflected in new gaelscoileanna, there is still a strong memory in Gaeltacht areas of the hardship experienced by emigrants who had little or no English when they left to seek work in Britain and the US.
"That experience left an indelible mark and there are many parents in the Gaeltacht who don't want their children to suffer in the same way and who will opt to speak English to them at home," Mr Ó hEallaithe, maths lecturer at Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology says.
Immigration rather than emigration is now perceived to pose a new threat to the language. A study carried out by Mr Ó hEallaithe earlier this year showed that only a quarter of Gaeltacht communities could claim it as the majority language.
Mr Ó Cuív has promised a comprehensive study of the use of Irish with a view to reassessing Gaeltacht areas and allowing certain communities, such as several suburbs in Galway, to "opt out" of designated Gaeltacht regions if they so choose.
Under Co Galway's new development plan, housing schemes will be refused planning permission if the local authority believes it might have a significant negative impact on Irish and the Gaeltacht.
