Hanafin hits out at Fine Gael’s Irish comments
12/11/2005 - 08:55:27The Minister for Education, Mary Hanafin, has hit out at Fine Gael's latest proposals make Irish an optional subject for the Leaving Certificate.
In a speech ahead of his party's conference in Cork today, Enda Kenny said that students should only be obliged to study Irish up to Junior Cert Level.
But Hanafin says it's simply electioneering on the part of Fine Gael.
She said that the comments were “particularly disappointing at a time when Irish is recognised as an official language in Europe and attitudes towards Irish have never been more positive".
She added that she hated to see the language being used as a “political football".
