Debate contribution: Language Commissioners: Appointment Update
Debate contribution by Ms Aisling Reilly on .
- MLA
- Ms Aisling Reilly
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 20 October 2025
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Language Commissioners: Appointment Update
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5188519
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Absolutely. My stance, as someone who was born and reared with the Irish language, will shock nobody. I know, see and have learned the incredible importance of an Gaeilge, but, of course, it is so important that best practice standards in the use of an Gaeilge are promoted across public services and, indeed, across our society. More and more people use the language gach uile lá
. They go for coffee as Gaeilge and go to youth clubs, play sport, do their messages, sing songs, watch films and TV shows and live their lives through the medium of Irish. Those are people of all ages and at all stages of their language journey. I think of my nephew, who is five years old, in primary 1 and completely fluent, and of my mother, who learned the language later in life and was able to gain employment in the Irish-medium education sector. Supporting the language properly and making it visible in public services and provisions is essential to building a society that is representative of the richness of culture that exists here. That is a society that is built on fairness, equality and justice.
193 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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