Looking at the Irish Water application pack, I was struck by the fact that the entire booklet was printed in two languages, Irish and English. The pack also contained two forms, one in English and one in Irish. As I dont speak Irish, I will bin the extra form. As it is estimated that less than 10% of the population are fluent in Irish, it is reasonable to assume that the other 90%+ will do the same as I did. Therefore it would seem that at least 45% of the printing costs incurred by Irish Water will have been wasted. This is true of many other organisations which have to provide forms and literature in Irish, due to its status as our First Official Language. This seems to me to be a near criminal waste of public funds, which must surely run into many millions annually. I understand that the Irish language is part of our national heritage, and agree that those who wish to use it should be facilitated in doing so, and I also understand the aspirations of those who wish to see Irish more widely used, but I wonder if it might not be better to have some sort of an opt-in system for those who wish to deal as Gaeilge (such as Revenue has) rather than effectively throwing away money printing material which will never be read or used. What do you think, O wise and thoughtful denizens of Facebook?
Posted on: Sun, 14 Sep 2014 14:34:30 +0000
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