SAOIRSE32

BN.ie

28/12/2006 - 07:30:20

Talks involving the Irish and British governments and Sinn Féin are said to be making good progress on policing, Sinn Féin has said.

The negotiations are due to continue today with hopes that the March deadline could still be met.

Sinn Féin sources say the talks continued almost non-stop over the Christmas break and have begun again in an upbeat atmosphere.

Although it’s still a case of work in progress, there are real hopes of a breakthrough.

Sinn Féin’s chief negotiator Martin McGuinness said considerable progress had been made and he had been in contact with both the Taoiseach and Tony Blair yesterday afternoon.

The work would continue, he said, to ensure agreement with the DUP to get the power-sharing institutions back up and running again.

BBC

The Irish language (Gaeilge) is set to get official status in the EU on 1 January, bringing the total to 23.

The EU recognises the Irish language’s resurgence

The European Commission says Bulgarian and Romanian are expected to get official status on the same day, when the two Balkan countries join the EU.

According to Ireland’s 2002 census, 1.57 million of the four million population can speak Irish.

The commission says the EU will not have to translate all legislation into Irish, “mainly for practical reasons”.

The EU will have a team of 29 translators and editors to handle Irish, as well as 450 freelance interpreter days annually, costing some 3.5m euros (£2.3m; $4.6m).

Despite the resurgence of interest in Irish, increasing numbers of students are choosing not to sit exams in Irish, the commission says. The language is compulsory in Ireland’s schools.

The commission describes linguistic diversity as a “key theme” in the EU, noting that Catalan, Basque and Galician have been granted semi-official status.

If they become official the costs will probably be incurred by Spain, it says.