RTÉ has thrown the Irish language “on the scrapheap”, the watchdog to protect the language has claimed.
An Coimisinéir Teanga Rónán Ó Domhnaill told an Oireachtas Committee on Tuesday that an
in-depth investigation carried out by his office showed that RTÉ
broadcast about 100 hours of Irish language programmes on television in
2017, compared to 18,000 hours in English.
“That is equivalent to 0.7 per cent,” said Mr Ó Domhnaill.
“Is léir, faraor
géar, go bhfuil craoladh clár teilifíse Gaeilge beagnach caite i
dtraipisí ar fad ag an gcraoltóir náisiúnta faoin tráth seo. [“It is
clear, sadly, that Irish language broadcasting on TV has been thrown on
the scrapheap at this point in time.”]
The Coimisinéir
was addressing Comhchoiste na Gaeilge, na Gaeltachta agus na nOileán in
Leinster House. The annual report of the Language Commissioner for 2018
was published in April.
He said the
situation was a sorry state for any national broadcaster, where the
first language was effectively set aside on television.
He said RTÉ’s
obligation to Irish was separate to TG4. RTÉ is required to provided a
“wide variety” of programming and Mr Ó Domhnaill said it was clear from
the paucity of programming that RTÉ was not fulfilling that part of its
remit.
