The Irish language is taught  to a good or very good standard, in only half of primary schools inspected, according to research conducted for the Government's 20-Year Strategy for the Irish language.

In one third of classrooms, Irish was taught through the medium of English.

Meanwhile pupils in just over half of lessons inspected were able to express themselves satisfactorily in Irish.

A recent report from researchers at the University of Ulster and the University of Limerick suggests that Irish is now the language of the elite.

The report also found that non-speakers of Irish are twice as likely to be unemployed  as those who are schooled in the native tongue.