Mr. John D. TaylorTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what are his estimates of the percentage of people in Northern Ireland who(a) use the Irish language as their first language and (b) have a fluent knowledge of the Irish language.
§ Dr. Mawhinney[holding answer 27 June 1988]: Information on the use of Irish as a first language is not 405W currently available. Data collected in the continuous household survey in 1987 suggest that some 3.7 per cent. of the people of Northern Ireland have an elementary fluency in the Irish language and 0.55 per cent. have full fluency.