Welsh Education Minister visits FIONTAR

Jane Davidson AM, Minister for Education and Lifelong Learning (left), Welsh National Assembly and Seán Ó Cuirreáin, An Coimisinéir Teanga (right)

FIONTAR, DCU presented the seminar "New Initiatives and Language Policies in Ireland and Wales" on 5 April 2005. Two guest speakers spoke at the occasion; Jane Davidson AM, Minister for Education and Lifelong Learning, Welsh National Assembly and Seán Ó Cuirreáin, An Coimisinéir Teanga.

The Minister spoke about the pioneering progress that has been made in Bilingualism in Wales; "Our goal is a bold one. We are no longer concerned with merely stabilising the number of Welsh speakers. Iaith Pawb (Everybody's Language) contains some challenging targets - including to increase the percentage of Welsh speakers by 5% by 2011 and an increase in the percentage of children receiving Welsh medium pre-school education."

The Coimisinéir Teanga, Seán Ó Cuirreáin, addressed the seminar by explaining the main objectives of the Official Languages Act and spoke about the fact that English has been effectively compulsory in the public services "..doing business in English only, has been embedded in many cases in so many people over such a long period of time, that it may take some time to develop their confidence that the system can serve them equally well in Irish."

This seminar formed part of the 3D FIONTAR Teanga project, which is supported by the INTERREG IIIA Ireland/Wales programme. The Irish strand of implementation is co-funded by The Strategic Initiative Fund, HEA.