Jobs to go as Foras cuts northern funds
January 24, 2014
Two leading West Belfast Irish language organisations have reacted angrily to a new rationalisations plan that will result in them losing key funding.
Foras na Gaeilge, which was set up after the Good Friday Agreement to promote the Irish language has said it will cut the number of Irish language groups to whom it provides core funding across Ireland from 19 to six. However, none of the six organisations that will continue to be funded are based in the north.
The changes will come into effect in July with Pobal, Iontabhas Ultach, Forbairt Feirste and Altram set to lose a significant portion of their budgets.
Pobal, the advocacy organisation for the Irish language, says that as a result of Foras na Gaeilge’s decision, it will lose four out of five full-time posts.
“The result of the ending of Pobal’s core funding will mean a loss of services and support for Irish speakers and a loss of expertise and experience,” said the group’s CEO Janet Muller.
“None of the organisations Foras na Gaeilge has selected for continuing funding do the work Pobal does, and none of them have the crucial expertise around legislation, rights, equality, special-needs and whole range of other areas affecting the development of Irish in the North.
“Not one single organisation selected by Foras na Gaeilge is based in the north. None of them have the long-standing relationship with the same variety of key players that we have. Whilst Foras na Gaeilge says the six organisations will have to employ some people in the north, the reality is that there would be fewer jobs than at present. Many more people will be laid off than will be re-employed”.
“There will be a massive drop in the authoritative directorial roles for norther workers, which means it will be very difficult for them to determine or influence organisational policy, to negotiate with politicians and service providers or to structure a work plan according to the specific needs of the north. All these things will be decided in Dublin.
“In recent months, all 19 core-funded organisations have condemned Foras na Gaeilge’s proposals because they will severely damage the language throughout the country. Pobal believes that the worst effect will be felt in the north. We have always carried out co-ordination research and project work on an all-Ireland basis, but we believe that both parts of the island need expert approaches because in the north the infrastructure is less developed and the social political and legislative position of the language is completely different from that in the south. As well as that, there is a vibrancy to the community in the north, yet Foras na Gaeilge has selected only Dublin-based organisations to survive the axe”.
Forbairt Feirste Director, Jake Mac Siacais told the Andersonstown News that the Irish language community’s infrastructure in the north will be ‘decimated’ by the Foras decision.
“If the bald truth be told, it has been a rationalisation and cuts agenda which Foras has been slavishly following in recent years whilst all the while adding to its own wages bill”, he said. “And it is a cuts agenda which they will be implementing under these arrangements without any regard to the impact and the implications for the Irish speaking community across the island, but mos particularly here in the north where the Irish language community’s infrastructure, skills base, experience, investments and painstaking partnership building will be decimated by the Foras approach”.
“Back in 2003, when the 26 county government initiated this policy of cuts with a savage 11 per cent cut in the Foras budget, the board of Foras na Gaeilge issued a strong statement saying among other theings, that Board members agreed that the status and repurations of Foras an Gaeilge as a cross-border agency had been weakened and the credibility of the Foras as an all-island language body was in doubt”.
“Ten years further on it is difficult to give any credibility to the Foras contention, made without a hint of irony, that this latest move heralds a new era for the Irish language when the status and reputation of the Foras as a cross-border agency is weakened and when there is now, more than ever, doubt about the credibility of Foras na Gaeilge as an all-island language body”.
“Having said that, Forbairt Feirste has long been engaged in pioneering work, creating an approach to using the Irish language as a regeneration catalyst which is unique on the island and we will endeavour to secure this work of driving forward the development of the Gaeltacht Quarter and the continued underpinning of the development of the Irish language community in Belfast.
“It is much too important to be allowed to go the wall and much too important to be left to the mercies of Foras and its new funding arrangement which are lacking in both the experience and imagination necessary for the work in hand”.
Raidió Fáilte and An tÁisaonad, both based on the Falls Road and which also receive funding from Foras na Gaeilge, will continue to be funded under separate arrangements.
Andersonstown News
