British-Irish Council discuss minority languages

Mon, 25 Nov 2019

The fifth ministerial meeting of Indigenous, Minority and Lesser-used Languages work sector of the British-Irish Council took place last week.

IOM Government's Education Minister Graham Cregeen MHK welcomed delegates from Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Jersey and Guernsey to the event, which was held on Friday at the Comis Hotel in Santon.

Chaired by Elund Morgan AM, Minister for International Relations and Welsh Language in the Welsh Government, with Sean Kyne TD, Government Chief Whip and Minister of State for the Irish Language, the Gaeltacht and the Islands; Kate Forbes MSP, Minister for Public Finance and Digital Economy; Deputy Montfort Tadier, Assistant Minister for Economic Development, Tourism, Sport and Culture; and Deputy Rhian Tooley, Member of the Committee for Education, Sport & Culture.

Ministers discussed the report arising from the conference ‘Adult Learning of IML languages” which took place on 8/9 March 2018 in Belfast. 

The focus was primarily on adult learning of IML languages and links with community, workplace and wider society - with emphasis from speakers addressing issues such as language learning outside of traditional classroom settings and the role of language in building community cohesion. 

The Ministers agreed that these policy areas were worthy and highly interesting work topics and endorsed them as the basis of a future work area subject to agreement by the Council at the next Summit. Once formally approved by the Council, the work sector will report back on progress to the next meeting of IML Languages Ministers.

 

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