The government delivers their 2026 Budget this week, just over two weeks after 25,000 protesters gathered in Dublin city centre for the first national march for the Irish language in a decade. Funding, already historically limited, has failed to keep pace with a growing economy; Irish is being de-emphasised in schools; a housing crisis in the Gaeltacht spells decline for the nation’s few Irish-speaking communities. As disillusionment with government inaction grows, it is a crucial moment to finally make the Irish language and Gaeltacht a real priority.
The Irish language and Gaeltacht have for years faced inadequate funding from the government. State expenditure has stagnated even as the nation’s economy has grown; currently, only 0.1 per cent of government spending goes towards relevant bodies and initiatives. Gaeltacht housing, language learning programmes and Irish language media are being strangled by funding that treats them as an afterthought. A real commitment to protecting and promoting the Irish language and Gaeltacht must start with funding that is substantial, not symbolic.
The nationwide housing crisis also has added weight in the Gaeltacht, where the overwhelming majority of available rooms and houses are operated as Airbnbs rather than long-term rentals. Young people in the Gaeltacht are being forced to move out, and this is a death sentence for the few existing communities where Irish can thrive as a rich living language. The government must acknowledge that this is not only a crucial issue but an urgent one. Without homes for its residents, a mainstay of the Irish language is quickly eroding. Government action on Gaeltacht housing must happen now, before its failure to implement policy leads to irreversible cultural loss.
Education policies hardly improve the picture. Though a quarter of parents would choose to send their children to Irish-medium schools, limited nationwide access to them means the share attending Gaelscoil are much fewer, and in decline. In English-medium schools this year, primary school children will receive 30 minutes fewer of Irish language lessons weekly. This is a hard hit for an education system that has already been criticised for underpreparing children for Irish at a higher level, with ripples into third-level education and civil service. How is the Irish language to see a real future if proficient speakers are thwarted on a systemic level?
In every aspect, the government has treated protection and promotion of the Irish language as secondary and disposable to its other interests. There is little mention of Irish language policy in manifestos and little action that is more than lip service. It is high time that the government is held accountable for this and that Gaeilge and Gaeltacht policy is treated as a real voting issue. In Wales, ambitious targets and policy plans promise to bolster the language; in Belfast, a new policy promoting Irish learning, programmes and pledging dual-language signage passed just last week. It is time that the government here starts to take its role in protecting the Irish language just as seriously.
