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Investigates Investigates Money Diaries The Journal TV Climate Crisis Cost of Living Road Safety Newsletters Temperature Check Inside the Newsroom The Journal Investigates Daft.ie Property Allianz Home The 42 Sport TG4 Entertainment The Explainer A deep dive into one big news story Sport meets news, current affairs, society & pop culture have your say Or create a free account to join the discussion Advertisement More Stories Presidential election candidate Catherine Connolly was interviewed on the How To Gael podcast this week.How To Gael Debate denied Six debates, numerous interviews, one question in Irish - Gaeilgeoirí shortchanged in campaign Conradh na Gaeilge is calling for a review of election broadcasting guidelines to ensure the Irish language and Gaeltacht community are not excluded from future election campaigns. 11.46am, 21 Oct 2025 Share options Foireann nua Gaeltachta The Journal a chuir an scéal seo ar fáil. Tá leagan as Gaeilge anseo. GAELTACHT AND IRISH language issues have been left on the margins during the concluding Presidential campaign due to broadcasting guidelines which have tied the hands of TG4 and RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta when interviewing the two candidates and the lack of interest by English language media. Both TG4 and RTÉ RnaG are restricted in their airing of interviews with Catherine Connolly during the Presidential election campaign due to Coimisiún na Meán guidelines about balanced broadcasting and Heather Humphreys not being fluent in Irish. While a handful of interviews have been broadcast on TG4 and RTÉ RnaG during the campaign, Conradh na Gaeilge has said that the guidelines relating to equal time being available to candidates need to be changed to give equality to the Irish-speaking and Gaeltacht communities. There has been little coverage of issues relating to the Irish language or the Gaeltacht in the English-language media. Of the six debates and numerous radio interviews, only one question was in Irish that was broadcast during The Week In Politics on Sunday, 5 October. Catherine Connolly complained about the lack of interviews on the Irish language broadcast media while participating in the bilingual How To Gael podcast recently and she indicated that she was not faulting Heather Humphreys for her lack of Irish as she described her own learning journey. How To Gael / YouTube Connolly recalled that it was during an interview on RTÉ Ráidió na Gaeltachta that she first announced that she would be putting her name in the race for the presidency. The Galway West TD said that she had featured on RTÉ RnaG during that interview and once afterwards. But now there’s no debate happening and I wasn’t on the radio (RTÉ RnaG) talking about the campaign because I don’t have the opportunity because they can’t have a balance because I’m the only one [with Irish]. “That’s difficult and it’s a huge gap. I was also thinking recently about the implications of only one person speaking Irish and now Ráidió na Gaeltachta is down, TG4 is down and I don’t know why, especially TG4, there wasn’t a debate and subtitles being used.” Responding to a question from Síomha Ní Ruairc, co-editor of How To Gael with Louise Cantillon and Doireann Ní Ghlacáin, Connolly agreed that it would be important to have a debate in Irish to serve the Irish and Gaeltacht communities. The Irish language and the Gaeltacht are at a disadvantage in terms of debate and that is unacceptable. It was probably a really bad decision for TG4 and I have enormous respect, I have immense respect for them for what they have achieved, but I don’t know why they gave in as early as they did. What about subtitles? In a statement from TG4, a spokesperson said that TG4 and Nuacht TG4 were adhering to the Media Commission guidelines as set out. “We are satisfied that comprehensive, fair and impartial coverage (on Nuacht TG4, 7LÁ and Áras25) of the Presidential election is being provided to Irish-speaking communities in accordance with TG4′s statutory remit, the Media Commission’s Election Guidelines and the European Media Freedom Act.Irish speaking and Gaeltacht community denied debate.” While there have been occasional responses from Catherine Connolly during press conferences broadcast during TG4 news coverage, there have been no long form interviews of the type broadcast on programmes like the Katie Hannon Show on RTÉ 1 or the Big Interview with Colette Fitzpatrick on Virgin Media. In response to our inquiry, Ghearóid Mac Donncha, head of RTÉ RnaG, said that an interview between Catherine Connolly and Máirín Ní Ghadhra, presenter of Nuacht a Háon, took place on Monday of this week. “In terms of balance, Fine Gael is going to provide a spokesperson for the programme to speak on behalf of Heather Humphries’ campaign and that person will be on Nuacht a Háon for the next few days. “RnaG has conducted a number of interviews with Catherine Connolly over the past few weeks on various programmes. Again, to achieve balance, interviews have been conducted with other spokespeople who are supporting Heather Humphries.” Another interview with Catherine Connolly was broadcast on An Saol Ó Dheas (RTÉ RnaG) during the candidate’s visit to Kerry on Friday. Irish speaking and Gaeltacht community denied debate Julian de Spáinn, ard rúnaí (general secretary) of Conradh na Gaeilge, has said that a candidate who speaks Irish should not be prevented from giving interviews to Irish-language media “just because the other candidate does not speak Irish”. “Not only does this leave the Irish-speaking candidate out of the picture, but it also denies debate and discussion to the Irish-speaking and Gaeltacht communities in their own language.” In his response to The Journal, de Spáinn said that the organisation had made recommendations that would support the holding of debates, including that a candidate who does not speak Irish would be allowed to put forward a representative for debate or interviews. Advertisement “If it is a question of rules at the Electoral Commission or the Media Commission, they need to be changed to ensure equality for Irish speakers.” In its response, Coimisiún na Meán referred to guidelines it issued to broadcasters last month on broadcasting during an election and a spokesperson said the guidelines provided ”additional information on how broadcasters can achieve fairness, objectivity and impartiality in their coverage of electoral events”. “Broadcasters have editorial independence in respect of their coverage of the election and in the scheduling of their own programming, including debates. For this reason, the way in which the Guidelines are implemented for a specific programme or election is an editorial matter for each individual broadcaster. “The guidelines provide advice to broadcasters on issues such as the allocation of time between candidates on broadcasts. There is no specific section that refers to the issue of time allocation on an Irish-language broadcaster between a candidate who speaks Irish and a candidate who is not fluent, as is the case in this election. “It is recommended that factors such as current elected representation, first preference votes in previous elections and the number of candidates in the upcoming election are taken into account. Other factors are also specifically mentioned but it is stated that the factors to be taken into account are not necessarily limited to those mentioned in the guidelines.” To the extent that there is specific reference to the Irish language in the guidelines, it is stated that access may be provided to viewers “through subtitling, audio commentary or Irish Sign Language”. Coimisiún na Meán also encourages English language services to provide additional opportunities to cover election events in Irish, which is in addition to their contractual obligations. Coimisiún na Meán said that the Access Rules do not include obligations about providing accessible coverage in respect of news and current affairs, but that it encourages television broadcasters to provide coverage of electoral events that is accessible. “This can be achieved via the provision of subtitling, audio description or Irish Sign Language,” it said. Legal experts have stressed the importance of the President being able to speak Irish. UCC Constitutional Law lecturer Seán Ó Conall said that not alone did the President have a symbolic role and knowledge of Irish was important in that capacity but it was also important his legal role as protector of the Constitution. He asked the question: Is there another country in the world whose President would not be willing to speak the official language of the State? He referred to the conduct of TV debates in other countries where there is more than one official language. “If we look at Canada, they do the work on this. They say if you don’t have French, if you don’t have English, you have an obligation and everyone accepts it, that you have to learn those languages. “You see that when there are debates on television when there is an election in Canada there is a debate in French and there is a debate in English and everyone has to be comfortable speaking English and French in public so that’s what the Canadian people would look forward to. “I’m not sure we really have the same mentality in Ireland.” In an IPSOS/Behaviour and Attitudes poll published in the Irish Times last week, 3% of respondents said that whether or not the President spoke Irish was an important issue. This was the first time the question had been asked in a poll in relation to a national election. In a response from Heather Humphreys’ campaign, a spokesperson said the Fine Gael candidate was a strong supporter of the Irish language and pointed to the increase of almost 25% in funding for the Department of the Gaeltacht during her tenure. Regarding the guidelines on the allocation of broadcasting time during election periods, the spokesperson had this to say: ““Heather would have no issue with the broadcasting rules being reviewed by the relevant authorities. “During the election campaign, RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta have asked on occasion us to put forward spokespeople and this has been facilitated. “There has been none to date from TG4 concerning the election. We try to facilitate all requests in this regard.” It is understood that a pre-election broadcast, to be supplied by each candidate, will be broadcast once and repeated on TG4 from now until Thursday. According to the instructions provided to the candidates, these segments will consist of one minute in Irish and fifteen seconds in a language other than Irish. These segments will be subtitled and will be broadcast once with one repeat. The Journal’s Gaeltacht initiative is supported by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Support The Journal Concubhar Ó Liatháin View 15 comments Send Tip or Correction Embed this post To embed this post, copy the code below on your site Email “Six debates, numerous interviews, one question in Irish - Gaeilgeoirí shortchanged in campaign”. 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