I fully back an independent report which has recently been prepared for the Ministry of Education in the North which calls for all Ireland co-operation in the teaching of Irish and the putting in place of closer ties between Gaelic speaking schools in Ireland and in Scotland.

It is only right and proper that we all must work closely together within all the government structures on the island of Ireland to ensure that the Irish language is taught at the highest level and to ensure that we can put in place similar initiatives to improve the number of Irish speakers.

Equally, we should work with Gaelic speaking schools in Scotland, and indeed in Europe and around the world to improve the programmes that we use to promote the Irish language. I very much welcome the fact too that there is an EU Commissioner with responsibility for languages in Europe. The European Union too can be a vehicle that we can use to promote lesser used languages in Europe, and this includes the Irish language.

There is an international dimension to the Irish language now that it is an official working language of the European Union.

Best practises used for the promotion of other lesser used languages in Europe will help us to promote the Irish language to a greater extent.

Seán O Neachtain MEP,

An Spidéal,

Co na Gaillimhe.