i have two questions:
-is Irish no an official language or not? Since when yes/no or when will that be decided?
-what is the official languages act
thanks already now

Irish is a Treaty Language of the EU - that means the treaties must be traslated into it; but not other legislation. The Irsih Government has applied that it be an official language to end the anomaly that it is the only official language of a member state which is not an official language of the Union. This requires the agreement of all member states, and will take up to a year.

The Offical Languages Act, passed last year in Ireland, regulates by law for the first time what services the Governemnt will provide in Irish. See:
http://www.pobail.ie/en/IrishLanguage/OfficialLanguagesAct2003/OfficialLanguages Act2003FAQs

The language situation in the EU is of course absurd at times. Maltese is an official language despite having less than 400.00 speakers. Catalan is not official despite having up to 7.000.000 speakers. Actually, there are eight official EU languages with less speakers than Catalan.

Number of speakers doesn't matter in this case. Except for Irish, all official languages of a member state are official languages of the Union. The Irish government during the accession negotiations in 1973 asked that Irish not be an offical language.

The Spanish Government (which relies on Catalan parties in parliament) is asking for Catalan to be an offical language; however, many Catalans believe they don't really want it to be an offical language.

Personally, I believe the Union should communicate with the citizens in the language of the citizens choice; and have some sensible policy to handle directives/legislation etc.

In the case of Ireland, I think it is vital that Irish be an official language. Rural people are much more subject to EU legislation (farming, fishing, conservation) than urban dwellers. The Gaeltachts are rural areas; the Gaeltacht people have a right to do their business in their first language.

Number of speakers doesn't matter in this case. Except for Irish, all official languages of a member state are official languages of the Union.

Yes, I know that's the reason - but I still think it's absurd.

Personally, I believe the Union should communicate with the citizens in the language of the citizens choice; and have some sensible policy to handle directives/legislation etc.

I agree up to a certain point. The EU might be reluctant to communicate in all 40 Sámi ("Lappish") languages, just to take one example.

In the case of Ireland, I think it is vital that Irish be an official language.

Absolutely!!

Actually, if someone could explain to me more clearly about this I would appreciate it. As far as I know there's a debate about whether to sign 'cairt chomhairle na hEorpa' for minority and regional languages because this would affect attempts at pursuing Irish as an Official EU language (sorry if my English is a bit off, I'm tired and my brain is thinking in Irish). Can someone explain this to me?

There is a European Charter on Minority Language Rights. As far as I know, this is a live issue in Northern Ireland, since the UK has signed one section of the Charter for Scot Gaidhlig, Welsh and Irish, and another with more limited rights for Ulster Scots.

I don't know of any discussion wrt the Charter in the the 26 counties.

The Charter Text

(Message edited by aonghus on October 12, 2004)

A chairde,
The UK have (eventually) signed up to Parts II and III of the Charter with respect to Gàidhlig, Welsh and Irish and to Part II only with respect to Scots, including Ulster Scots in the North of Ireland.
Devolved government in Scotland and Wales, together with the on-again off-again situation regarding devolution in the Six Counties has lead to this being an incredibly protracted process.
Le meas,
Chris