Public should speak up against uncosted plan to squander money on Irish language

The Education Authority has proposed huge unnecessary expense on the Irish language, but included no costings.

I would encourage the public to make known their views on the squander which the authority is proposing.

At a time when the secretary of state has singled out education as an area where there are particularly severe pressures on finances such expense is totally without merit.

Several of the policy changes will strike many people as irrational.

For example, if someone begins a phone call to the Education Authority in Irish it is proposed that staff members who cannot speak Irish should offer service users the option to leave a voicemail in Irish.

Not only is this absurdly cumbersome it is self evidently nonsense given the implied admission that all Irish speakers who contact the Education Authority will be sufficiently competent in English in order to understand being offered the option of leaving an Irish language voicemail!

Similarly if someone has arranged a face to face meeting and arrives speaking in Irish there is an admission that the individual will be capable of understanding the offer to continue the meeting in English.

It is a farce that they could be offered another meeting with the added expense of having a translator present!

From beginning to end the policy screams of something which requires vast additional expense but at no point in any of the proposals are costings mentioned.

This cavalier approach to public money is totally unacceptable.

Additionally, there is the fact that Irish is associated with one community and that implementing these proposals will have a discriminatory impact on the Protestant /unionist community who will be excluded from applying for posts which will be created to fill the supposed needs of people who speak Irish.

At no point is this fact acknowledged by the Education Authority.

With Northern Ireland facing the imposition of an Irish Language Act the public can expect similar squander by other public bodies in the days ahead.

Jim Allister KC MLA, North Antrim