‘Future of Foras na Gaeilge now in danger due to lack of funding’

Conradh na Gaeilge has strongly criticised the decision to implement widespread funding cuts for Irish language schemes and projects across the country.

These include damaging cuts to three of their most community-focused schemes, the Irish Language Community Network Development Scheme, which funds 28 local Irish language community groups, the Irish Language Media scheme, and the national lead-organisations scheme. The decisions were announced following a board meeting of Foras na Gaeilge.

Foras na Gaeilge was founded in 1999 as a product of the Good Friday Agreement. In 2003, Foras na Gaeilge was in receipt of a budget of €17.2m. By 2022, Foras na Gaeilge’s budget stood at €16.3m, a decrease of 5.2% over 20 years.

Conradh na Gaeilge alongside 130 Irish language and Gaeltacht groups have compiled an investment plan that sets out a funding roadmap for Foras na Gaeilge over the next 4-5 years.

Friday’s funding cuts come as media reports seem to confirm that recent attempts to amend the north-south ratio-based funding mechanism have failed, following an announcement made by the North South Ministerial Council last September that a new framework was awaiting approval through both Finance Departments and Governments.

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Paula Melvin, President of Conradh na Gaeilge said: “Conradh na Gaeilge is bitterly disappointed with the news that reached us informing Irish language groups that widespread funding cuts had been agreed by Foras na Gaeilge.

“These cuts are to be implemented at a time where local groups are already experiencing a longstanding funding crisis, a crisis which has and once again raises fundamental questions about the ability and viability of Foras na Gaeilge to facilitate the provision of effective funding for the Irish language, questions that will grow undeniably louder unless both Governments intervene and address Friday’s cuts.

“We understood that both Finance Departments, and subsequently both Governments, were on the verge of agreeing on a new north-south funding framework to facilitate funding increases for the cross-border bodies. We now understand that those framework proposals have encountered political frustration and delay. We are calling on both Governments to work together to resolve that stalemate. They have proceeded, for over two decades, over the continued disinvestment in Foras na Gaeilge and whilst this is ultimately a problem of their own making, they retain the power to resolve the situation very quickly.

“Since this news broke, we have been contacted by numerous Irish language communities and groups right across Ireland who are rightly worried and concerned about the future of their projects and their staff. Before this latest announcement, those groups have made consistent representations north and south calling for adequate funding to allow them to pay staff, rent offices and heat their premises. These cuts make those financial circumstances even worse. Conradh na Gaeilge will do all we can to fight against these cuts and to call on both Governments to ensure a permanent solution to a longstanding funding problem is finally agreed.”

Julian de Spáinn, Ard-Rúnaí for Conradh na Gaeilge, commented: “During our campaigning ahead of last year’s Dáil elections we consistently made the case to political parties and candidates that Foras na Gaeilge, as the supposed primary funding mechanism for the Irish language community outside of the Gaeilge, was in dire need of additional funding, highlighting that Foras na Gaeilge receive less now than they did when they were founded, 25 years ago.

“Groups across the country agreed that the north-south funding structure underpinning Foras na Gaeilge was fundamentally flawed and broken, which crippled the ability of Foras na Gaeilge to provide sufficient funding to an ever-growing Irish language community.

“Now, the situation has become even worse. As we called for a substantial funding increase to the Foras na Gaeilge budget, widespread cuts have been announced to a budget that had already been described as ‘not fit for purpose’. These cuts will heap even further pressure on groups who cannot support their own basic financial demands and are in contravention of the core principles and vision of the Good Friday Agreement to support and develop the language. We also believe that all groups deserve clarity on where this €817,945 shortfall has come from and why we were not given any previous warning about the scenario that emerged on Friday.

“It is abundantly clear to us that Foras na Gaeilge is broken and no longer viable as an effective funding structure capable of facilitating the provision of adequate funds from both Governments under the current funding model, a model that has once more left those on the ground with even less than before.

“If no new funding framework can be agreed that amends the current north-south match-funding ratios and allows either jurisdiction to provide additional funds to Foras when they so choose, without the equivalent funding for their north/south counterpart, then this crisis will only deepen, and we will be facing more and more cuts, time and time again.”

“There are serious questions for both Governments, which will have long-term repercussions for the future of Foras na Gaeilge itself, which can only be remedied by an urgent solution to that north-south funding framework and long overdue funds for the Irish language community.”