Galway Bay fm newsroom - Gaeltacht Minister and Galway West TD Sean Kyne has this afternoon secured cabinet approval for a new Irish language bill.
The bill aims to support the development of the language across the country, and follows a drop in the use of Irish in Galway's Gaeltacht regions.
Minister of State Sean Kyne attended today’s Cabinet meeting where he outlined the proposals of the Official Languages (Amendment) Bill 2017 to ministers.
Among the key provisions of the Bill are an objective that 20% of new recruits to the public service be Irish speakers, that all public offices in the Gaeltacht operate through Irish and that all new public bodies be in the Irish language.
The new bill contains legislative amendments, new measures and policies which will increase the visibility and use of Irish across the country.
The latest Census figures show a decline in the use of the Irish language in Galway's Gaeltacht regions.
Statistics show that the daily use of Irish in the Gaeltacht regions outside of the city has dropped by almost 6%.
