A level playing field for Irish in Europe

The status of Irish as a full working language of the European Union has not been achieved yet, with a derogation in place on using Irish in the European Parliament, Irish MEPs do not have the same permissions to use the first official language of Ireland as other MEPs do to use their own languages at present, due to a lack of posts and some bureaucratic decisions, which could be easily solved.

This has an impact on employment and on the status, visibility, and use of Irish. As a member state we are paying into the funds for these services regardless, so now is the time to solve this problem.

This issue needs to be addressed and Ireland has a great chance to do this now with the impending Presidency of the European Union Council commencing in July 2026.

If you support our petition, please fill in your details below and the following email will be sent on your behalf to the following recipients:

Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament
Micheál Martin, Taoiseach
Simon Harris, Tánaiste
Helen McEntee, Minister for Foreign Affairs
Dara Calleary, Minister for the Gaeltacht
James Lawless, Minister for Higher & Further Education
Thomas Byrne, Minister for European Affairs

Your name:

Your email address:

The email text:

A chairde,

We hereby call on the authorities of the European Parliament and the Irish Government to ensure a level playing field for the Irish language in Europe and to take all necessary steps to end the derogation and ban on the use of Irish in the European Parliament in areas where the other 23 official languages may be used, particularly in committee, where most of Parliament's work is done.

This derogation is now only in place on the Irish language, as the derogation on the use of Maltese has recently been ended.

This requires the creation of 6 permanent posts in the Irish-language Unit for translators and 2 permanent posts for assistants as well as 3 permanent posts as Irish-language interpreters in Parliament. Ireland already pays into the fund for this but we are not allowed to fill our quota.

Now is the time to achieve a level playing field for Irish in the context of the Irish Presidency of the European Union.

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