🚀 go-pugleaf

Najwa <najwa@struct.net> wrote in message news:388404a7_3@news.jps.net...

> poofery

I'm not sure that's a real word.

bro

Najwa <najwa@struct.net> wrote in message news:388404a7_3@news.jps.net...

> ...poofery...

I'm not sure that's a real word.

bro

What the fuck is your problem, is it because we are perfect and you are
jealous coming from an underdeveloped third world country?
Ok Naj
Najwa <najwa@struct.net> wrote in message news:388404a7_3@news.jps.net...
> The following are five examples of spurious boosterism from
state-sponsored
> agencies in the Republic of Ireland. I posted this before but I see no
harm
> in posting it again, given that I'm way outnumbered by others who are
> posting immodest and misleading half-truths about the RoI economy. This
> re-post is for the benefit of those who didn't see it before. It is
> essentially the very same as a post with nearly the same title dated 5 Jan
> 2000.
>
>
> The first example comes from the Irish Industrial Development Agency, the
> largest economic development agency. The following appears at their
webpage
> about the software industry in RoI: "Ireland is the second largest
exporter
> of software in the world, after the United States. The top 10 independent
> software companies in the world have significant operations in Ireland and
> today over 40% of all PC package software (including 60% of business
> applications software) sold in Europe is produced here."
> (http://www.idaireland.com/issw.html). A similar claim is made by the
Irish
> National Software Directorate, www.nsd.ie.
>
> You might think that a normal person wouldn't be so foolish as to believe
> the above poofery. However, my mother is a relatively normal person and
she
> was under the impression that it was true. The main basis for it is that
one
> of Microsoft's two packaging plants is located in Ireland. Shrink-wrappped
> Windows 98 is shrink-wrapped in Ireland. But the software packaging
industry
> is properly counted as part of the packaging industry, not the software
> industry. In the true software industry, also known as the software
> development industry, the single company SAP, headquartered in Germany,
> exports more software (in revenue terms) than all software development
> operations in the RoI put together. Israel, Canada, UK and many other
> countries export much more software than the RoI does -- in the
> shrink-wrapped software industry, not the shrink-wrapping industry. None
of
> the world'd top ten independent software companies has significant
> development operations in the RoI; they have localisation testing and
> packaging operations. (An exception is California-based Sun Microsystems,
> which does have a development team in the RoI, athough Sun isn't an
> "independent software company" strictly speaking). US corporate income tax
> considerations are the principal reason for locating these packaging
> operations in the Republic. In software, there's a big difference between
> the sales price of the software product and the "cost of goods sold" --
the
> latter being the cost of duplicating the disks and manuals and packaging
> them, generally 8% to 10% of the wholesale price of the software product.
> This big difference is "gross profits". When these profits can be
recognised
> in the RoI, they are taxed in the RoI at rates lower than the US corporate
> tax rates. They are then repatriated to the US, where they are not subject
> to corporate income tax again, due to international treaties. The
corporate
> tax rate in RoI is 10% or 12%, compared to 34% in the US. When a US
company
> pays the 10% to the Irish, it escapes having to pay any US corporate
income
> taxes on the remaining 90%. Some restrictions are placed by US tax
> regulations on where and how profits can be recognised: In particular, the
> Irish operations generally can't recognise profits in Ireland on any
> packages that they export back into the US, but they can indeed recognise
> profits in Ireland on packages they export elsewhere. What about
> localisation testing? Localisation testing means checking that the
software
> runs correctly in foreign locales, which have other keyboard
configurations,
> etc., as well as text in other languages. (By the way, standard software
> development practice these days is such that, aside from text translation,
> the localisation task is primarily a testing task and not a development
> task). Unlike ordinary software testing, localisation testing is not a
> tax-deductible expense in the US against profits earned in the US, because
> it involves customisations for profits that will be realised overseas. The
> same sort of thing goes for other high-tech and medical instruments and
> pharmaceutical companies that have set up manufacturing operations in
> Ireland. The manufacturing cost of a medical implant device, a
> microprocessor, or a drug is a tiny fraction of its selling price. Most of
> the overall costs are in marketing and R&D and, in the case of big
> successful products, taxes. In these cases it doesn't matter very much
> whether the Irish plant is cost efficient in manufacturing terms, because
> the manufacturing cost is small compared to the potential taxes. See e.g.
> http://www.microsoft.com/msft/ar99/alt_uk.htm. Twelve of the world's top
> fifteen pharmaceutical companies have manufacturing plants in Ireland, and
> in Puerto Rico, for the same reason. The maximum corporate tax rate in
> Puerto Rico is now 7% (down from 14% not long ago). Puerto Rico has a huge
> and growing trade surplus, with pharmachems the biggest contributor to it,
> as in Ireland. Annual exports of pharmaceuticals are valued at about US$10
> billion from Puerto Rico, and US$12 billion from Ireland. Nine out of the
> top ten bestselling drugs patented by US companies are manufactured in
> Puerto Rico, and 18% of all US drugs are manufactured there. It's no
> coincidence that Puerto Rico also happens to be where Microsoft's other
> packaging plant is located. It is instructive to read about the medical-
and
> computer-related manufacturing industries in Puerto Rico, as per the
Puerto
> Rico Industrial Development Agency, and see the parallels with Ireland:
> http://www.pridco.com/english/success/index.html. As a footnote, here's a
> quote from the famous Andrew Grove, chairman of Intel, which appeared in
the
> Irish Times a few months ago. He was speaking about the high-tech industry
> as it has developed in Ireland, but he might equally have been speaking
> about Puerto Rico. "My impression is this development has been very much
> driven by multinational companies. To drive toward the Internet economy,
> something else has to happen that is not driven by the multinational
> companies. What has to happen, and hasn't yet, is for local companies to
be
> passionate about this opportunity and pursue it." That is not to deny that
> some real software development shops exist in the RoI -- but their number
is
> small and their markets are small. (A currently incomplete and partial
list
> of them can be found at http://www.sbpost.ie/itpost/silicon2/index.html).
> I've no complaint about low corporate taxes; matter of fact I'd like to
see
> the whole world adopt low corporate taxes. But I think I have a legitimate
> complaint when many citizens, like my mother and even myself, are being
> misled by Irish government agencies. It's one thing to promote the country
> abroad; it's another thing to misinform people at home.
>
>
>
> Here's the next example of spurious boosterism, this time from the website
> of Enterprise Ireland, a state agency with overseas offices in two dozen
> cities to promote Irish international trade and enterprise: "Ireland's
> educational system is ranked as the best in the world at meeting the needs
> of a competitive economy, and the general population's level of economic
> literacy is ranked number two in the world (behind Singapore)."
>
> The functional literacy and numeracy skills of RoI adults are the lowest
of
> the English-speaking countries and among the lowest in Europe (more
exactly,
> the lowest of 12 countries surveyed except Poland). The poorer showing of
> the Republic generally holds true even when you look at groups of adults
> with equal levels of formal education: Adults in the Republic with a
college
> degree scored lower than adults in the UK with a college degree, and the
> same was true at every other level of formal education as well, and the UK
> was one of weaker performers of the 12 countries surveyed. The percent of
> youths in the RoI who are not completing upper secondary education is
among
> the highest in the EU. The college entry and college graduation rates in
RoI
> are substantially lower than in the other English-speaking countries [by
the
> way these rates increased substantially in the UK during the nineties].
The
> participation rate of RoI adults in lifelong education is among the lowest
> in the OECD. RoI school children's scores on international maths and
science
> tests are at or below the averages for the developed countries. When
school
> children's level of geographic literacy was tested, Ireland ranked
> secondlast out of nine countries tested. I've no idea what's the basis for
> Enterprise Ireland's claim that "the general population's level of
economic
> literacy is ranked number two in the world". There has been no large-scale
> or rigourous international test on the matter.
>
> With regard to Enterprise Ireland's claim that "Ireland's educational
system
> is ranked as the best in the world at meeting the needs of a competitive
> economy", I will make just one observation. The new primary school
> curriculum guidelines, introduced by the Minister for Education on October
> 9, 1999, allocate almost as much time to Gaelic as to basic English
> comprehension and writing, more time to Gaelic than to maths, far more
time
> to Gaelic than to science or computers or any other subject -- compulsory
> for all children over the age of six.
>
> International data sources for RoI education and literacy standards:
>
> http://www.nald.ca/nls/ials/ialsreps/ialsrpt2/ials2/high4e.htm
> [1996 International adult literacy survey, results for 16 to 25 year olds]
>
> http://www.nces.ed.gov/pubs98/condition98/c9821d01.html
> [1996 International adult literacy survey, results broken down by formal
> education attainments]
>
> http://www.nces.ed.gov/pubs99/condition99/SupTables/supp-table-60-1.html
> [1996 Highest educational attainment of adults, broken down by age groups]
>
> http://www.struct.net/OECD1998EducationIndicators.pdf (charts 3, 4 & 5)
> [1998 Education Indicators: Overview of the OECD countries, mostly 1996
> data]
>
> http://www.irlgov.ie/educ/pdfs/!newgrap.pdf (Figure F)
> [1997 Rate of retention in upper second level in RoI in 1997]
> http://www.irlgov.ie/educ/pdfs/!newgrap.pdf (Figure N)
> [1997 Rate of entry into all forms of third level in RoI in 1997]
>
> http://www.thesis.co.uk/tp/999/OPEN/DDW?W=filename='oecd.html'
> [1998 OECD estimates of university entry rates]
>
> http://www.nces.ed.gov/pubs99/digest98/figure30.html
> [1995 Estimates of university graduates as percent of theoretical age
group]
>
> http://www.irlgov.ie/educ/pdfs/adultedu.pdf
> [1998 Participation rates of adults in continuing education]
>
> http://www.nces.ed.gov/pubs/eiip/eiipid08.html
> [1991 International maths and science tests, results for 9 and 13 year
olds]
>
> http://www.timss.bc.edu/TIMSS1/Highlights.html
> [1996 International maths and science tests, results for 9 and 13 year
olds]
>
> http://www.nces.ed.gov/pubs/eiip/eiipid09.html
> [1991 International geography test, 9 and 13 year olds]
>
> Footnote: Within the last couple of weeks, Enterprise Ireland removed the
> statement I quoted above from its website (possibly in response to email
by
> me). Enterprise Ireland's website now says "The quality of Ireland's
> education is exceptionally high", but doesn't offer anything concrete in
> support of that. It also says "Ireland has the highest number of students
in
> third level colleges in Europe on a per capita basis."
> (http://www.enterprise-ireland.com/invest-ireland.asp). This latter claim,
> if true, would be mostly a reflection of the age structure of the
> population, not the quality of the education system. The age structure has
a
> bulge around the group now attending college, due a high birth rate 20
years
> ago, a declining birth rate for the last 15 years, and emigration among
the
> older age groups. In 1997, the proportion of second level who entered some
> form of third level in the Republic was less than 45% (see Figure N at
> http://www.irlgov.ie/educ/pdfs/!newgrap.pdf). Meanwhile the same year in
> Northern Ireland, for example, the proportion was more than 60% (see
> 'Destinations of school leavers' at
> http://www.deni.gov.uk/statistics/Education%20Statistics.pdf). Also, the
> dropout rate in the Republic during the first year of third level is
> estimated at more than 25%, higher than Northern Ireland.
>
>
>
>
>
> Here's the next example of phoney Irish Republic boosterism, this time
from
> the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), a quasi-independent
> organisation that regularly gets government contracts to do economic
> research. In October 1999 ESRI issued a Medium Term Review and five-year
> economic forecast for the Republic. Here's how the ESRI's review and
> forecast was reported by the Belfast Telegraph daily newspaper: "[The ESRI
> Report says] there has been a significant increase in workers commuting
from
> the north to the south [of Ireland] to new employment. This has helped
> relieve constraints in the Republic while also making a contribution to
> reducing unemployment in the North. With the growing success of Dundalk
this
> pattern of commuting may continue, said the ESRI Report. The ESRI Report
> warned that despite the introduction of the European single market
Ireland's
> two economies are drifting apart in terms of structure and performance and
> warned that the North's education system is lagging behind."
> (http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/today/oct14/Business/celtci.ncml). That
> Belfast Telegraph news article is quoting almost exactly from the summary
> Chapter 7 of the ESRI Report, available at the ESRI's website at
> http://www.esri.ie/MTRFrames.htm.
>
> Let's look at the facts. The only documented evidence of commuting from
> north to south has been to the border town Dundalk. Some people have been
> commuting from south Armagh to Dundalk for work, something that should
> surprise nobody because Dundalk is the largest nearby town. However this
> commuting has been blown out of all proportion by the ESRI report. First,
> only about 12,000 jobs exist in and around the Dundalk area and so it's
> place in the big picture is small, in north and south. Northern Ireland
has
> had a net gain of more jobs than that over the past 12 months. Second, as
> recently as five years ago (and probably still) Dundalk was classed as one
> of the six most deprived areas in the Republic. The town has a higher rate
> of high school dropouts, higher proportions of unskilled workers in the
> workforce, higher numbers of long-term unemployed, higher percentage
living
> in government subsidised housing, etc, versus the country as a whole. In
> Sept 1998 the unemployment rate in Dundalk was twice the RoI national
> average. It's no economic engine of growth. But it has been recovering
> recently and along with recovery there's been a growth in the little
trickle
> from across the border. Third, there was net migration from the Republic
to
> the North during the decade of the nineties, and in the most recent year
for
> which figures are available, 97/98. Fourth, in October 1999 the
unemployment
> rate in NI was not much higher than in RoI (the official NI rate was 6.0%,
> while the official RoI rate was five-point-something). Unemployment in the
> Newry travel-to-work area north of the border was lower than in the
Dundalk
> area south of the border. Fifth, NI is the fastest growing economic region
> in the UK. Output and productivity are rising heathily in manufacturing in
> particular. Wages are higher than in the Republic and wages have been
rising
> in recent years at a slightly faster rate not counting sterling currency
> appreciation. Sixth, education attainments in the North are better than in
> the Republic, and have been improving in recent years at a faster rate. In
> regard to education the only measure by which the Republic looks slightly
> better is the proportion of seventeen year-olds still in school, which is
> attributable to GSCEs taken at sixteen in the North while the RoI Leaving
> Cert is taken at seventeen. ESRI uses (or abuses) this sole fact as the
> basis for its claim that NI education is "lagging behind" the RoI. ESRI
> doesn't mention that the average number of years of schooling is higher in
> NI for the current cohort of young adults, or that 95% of NI youths
complete
> the GCSEs, or that GCSE and A Levels results are better in NI than in any
> other region of the UK, or that over 60% of NI second-level school leavers
> go on to further or higher education, or that the participation rate in
> university education is higher in NI than in RoI and rose at a faster rate
> in NI during the nineties, or that the two principal NI universities rank
at
> and above the averages of the principal UK universities by most measures.
> ESRI casually says that NI is lagging at third level, without stating a
> basis for this claim. On my information and belief, here's their purported
> basis for it. 30% of NI-domiciled fulltime undergraduate university
students
> attend universities in other parts of the UK [meanwhile, by the way, only
2%
> choose to study at universities in the Republic] and more than half of
these
> don't return to NI afterwards. If you don't count the NI-domiciled
students
> who go to universities in GB, then the RoI's ratio of university graduates
> looks a little higher. The two universities in NI (QUB and UU) rank at and
> above the averages for the UK universities by measures of assessed
teaching
> quality, scientific research by staff, qualifications of students on
> admission, employment of students after graduation, library and computer
> facilities, and other measures. We know this because in-depth evaluations
> are routinely performed in the UK university system and put up on the Net
> for the benefit of all to see. Meanwhile the Republic's universities
> probably rank below the UK averages by most of the same measures.
> Unfortunately however, no quality studies have been performed on the RoI
> universities, either in an international or national context. We really
> don't know how good or not-so-good they are. Here's a quote from an Irish
> Dail Education Committee meeting in June 1999: "There are problems in
> relation to entry requirements, transition, progression and high drop out
> rates.... We do not know the drop out rates in any of our institutes of
> technology and universities. Sometimes it can be extremely difficult to
get
> those statistics or even to know if they are being compiled by the
> universities and institutes of technology. We need this basic
> information...."
>
> Data Sources:
>
> http://www.columbia.edu/~yt23/Ireland2.html#dundalk
> [Dundalk's labour force in the first half of the nineties]
>
> http://www.dedni.gov.uk/statsres/overview/over.htm
> [Northern Ireland labour market summary data]
>
> http://www.dedni.gov.uk/statsres/claimant/ue_ind.htm
> [Northern Ireland official unemployment data]
>
> http://www.dedni.gov.uk/statsres/qes/qes_eie3.htm
> [Northern Ireland annual and quarterly job growth data]
>
> http://www.nisra.gov.uk/dmb/datavalt.htm (the ZIP file)
> [Northern Ireland emigration/immigration data]
>
> http://www.dedni.gov.uk/statsres/earnings/nes_ind.htm
> [Northern Ireland earnings data]
>
> http://www.northernireland.gov.uk/about.htm
> [Northern Ireland economy and business investment facts and figures]
>
> http://www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/xsdataset.asp?vlnk’8
> [Northern Ireland second-level exam results in 1997 compared to rest of
UK]
>
> http://www.deni.gov.uk/statistics/pr/pr-23jun99/pr23jun99.htm
> [Northern Ireland second-level exam results in 1998]
>
> http://www.deni.gov.uk/statistics/Education%20Statistics.pdf
> [Northern Ireland, overview of education statistics, 1986-1998, showing
that
> the percent of NI school leavers who do not attain at least GCSE level
> qualifications has fallen from 20% in 1986 down to 4% in 1998. The percent
> who leave school with three or more "A" Levels has doubled since 1986, as
> has the entry rate to full-time Higher Education. The number of part-time
> undergrads has tripled. The number of fulltime post-grads has more than
> doubled.]
>
> http://www.niss.ac.uk/sites/quality.html
> [Quality evaluations of the UK universities including QUB and UU]
>
> http://www.deni.gov.uk/statistics/pr/pr-30jun99/table1.pdf
> [Northern Ireland domiciled third-level students: Where they are studying]
>
> http://www.irlgov.ie/committees-99/c-education/990630/sect1.htm
> [Dail Education Committee notes huge information deficit about quality at
> 3rd level]
>
> http://www.thesis.co.uk/tp/999/OPEN/DDW?W=filename='oecd.html'
> [1998 University entry rate]
> http://www.nces.ed.gov/pubs99/digest98/figure30.html
> [1995 University graduates as percent of theoretical age group]
> http://www.struct.net/OECD1998EducationIndicators.pdf
> [1998 Education Indicators Overview of the OECD countries]
>
> Percent of age group achieving at least 5 GCSE grades A*-C in 1996/97:
>     Northern Ireland: 53.5% (note: improved to 56.6% in 1997/98)
>     United Kingdom: 46%
> Percent of age group achieving at least 2 A Levels or at least 3 SCE
> highers, 1996/97:
>     Northern Ireland: 37%
>     United Kingdom: 30%
> Source http://www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/xsdataset.asp?vlnk’8
> Try your hand at some GCSE maths questions:
> http://www.gcse.com/Maths/hd/hdt.htm
>
>
>
>
> The next example is from the Irish Information Society Commission, an
agency
> that promotes the use of computers and information technologies in
Ireland.
> I will quote their recent press releases about internet usage in a moment.
> Before I do, let me say that the latest internet usage survey in RoI (Oct
> 99) shows 12% reported using the internet in the three months prior to the
> survey. This compares with over 20% in the UK, over 30% in Australia, and
> over 40% in the US and Canada. The Irish figure of 12% for October 1999
was
> an increase from 10.5% in June 1999 and 8.5% in November 1998. Also
> noteworthy was the attrition rate found in the October 1999 survey: 28%
> reported using the internet at least once sometime, but only 12% within
the
> prior three months. Apparently then, most people who've tried it aren't
> going back to it. The Irish Information Society Commission doesn't mention
> any of that in their October 1999 press release. Here's what they say:
"The
> survey showed that 33 per cent of Irish people now have access to the
> Internet.... About 28 per cent of people have personally used the Internet
> compared to just 5% in 1996." They also say: "The research showed that
> students are one of the key groups driving the use of information
> communication technologies." To be fair, in a later press release
(November
> 1999) they admit: "Older people in Ireland are not embracing the
> technological age as quickly as other markets like the USA where one third
> of Internet users are senior citizens.... Inexperience, lack of
> understanding of how a computer operates and not knowing what the Internet
> is, were the biggest barriers prohibiting Irish people over the age of 35
> from using the Internet." However, it is a fact that inexperience, lack of
> understanding of how a computer operates, and not knowing what the
Internet
> is, are equally applicable to senior citizens in the USA. But the US
senior
> citizens have learned. And the Irish have not. Why? Perhaps the biggest
> reason is that practically all the US senior citizens who are using the
> internet today were taught basic typing skills back when they were in
> school. They know how to type. The keyboard is not a barrier for them.
> Whereas few Irish adults know how to type. Interacting with the computer
is
> a pain for those Irish people who constantly have to look up and down from
> the keyboard. Those who controlled the Irish education curriculum thought
> that being able to type was absolutely worthless, while being able to say
a
> few strings of cliches in Gaelic was very valuable. That's judging from
the
> time allocations they gave to these two subjects in the school curriculum.
>
> Sources:
> http://www.nua.net/surveys/how_many_online/index.html
> [The principal compiler of internet usage figures in a form permitting
> comparisons between countries.]
>
> http://www.ispo.cec.be/polls/EB98.htm
> [Results of an EU-wide survey, Nov 98, sponsored by an EU Commission]
>
> http://www.nua.net/surveys/?f=VS&art_id5355443&rel=true
> [Internet usage just for Northern Ireland, Nov 1999, not available in the
> international comparisons above]
>
> http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/finance/1999/1217/tech5.htm
> [Irish Times article decrying low internet usage in RoI]
>
> http://208.55.13.183/cgi-local/nepr.cgi?f=all&c=press&id=9&o=0
> http://208.55.13.183/cgi-local/nepr.cgi?f=all&c=press&id&o=0
> [Information Society Commission press releases]
>
>
>
> Here's the next example of ill-founded boosterism, this time from the
websit
> e of Bord na Gaeilge, a government agency whose main aim is to promote the
> Gaelic language as a vernacular of everyday communication in Ireland. Says
> Bord na Gaeilge, "In recent years.... Interest in the Irish language
amongst
> the wider public has been increasing steadily".
>
(http://www.bnag.ie/frames/english/irish_today/information_pages/irishtod_bi
> z1.html).
>
> The wider public has not been buying books in Gaelic. Best selling books
in
> Gaelic don't sell over a thousand copies in a year, not counting school
> books. Neither are they watching Gaelic television. Gaelic programmes
rarely
> capture more than 1.5% of available viewers and some good portion of that
> 1.5% are short-stay channel switchers who don't understand what they are
> hearing. Neither is the public going to the Gaeltachts to partake in
Gaelic
> speaking. About half of the adults who take Gaelic language summer courses
> in the Gaeltachts these days are Americans and other non-Irish citizens
and
> the total numbers involved are just a few thousand not counting teachers.
> Neither is the wider public speaking Gaelic closer to home. Over 85% of
the
> adults who claim the ability to speak Gaelic say that they speak it less
> often than once a week or never.
>
> For the first time this century, the 1996 Census had a question about
> frequency of usage of Gaelic. Respondents who answered YES to the question
> "Can the person speak Irish" were asked to mark a box about frequency of
> usage, one of "Daily", "Weekly", "Less often" [than weekly], and "Never".
Of
> those who marked Daily, 79 percent were school children, and an estimated
> further 7 percent were school teachers, most of them primary school
> teachers. Outside the Gaeltachts, 50,000 adults said they spoke Gaelic
> Daily, of whom about 24,000 are school teachers. 100,000 non-Gaeltacht
> adults said they spoke Gaelic Weekly, which represents 4% of the
> non-Gaeltacht adult population. To put that in a perspective, consider
that
> 100,000 passengers travel by airplane from the Republic to the UK per week
> (www.aer-rianta.ie).
>
> Bord na Gaeilge also claims that "Irish is the living community language
in
> the Gaeltacht".
>
(http://www.bnag.ie/frames/english/irish_today/information_pages/irishtod_ga
> elt.html). This too is ill-founded and misleading. About 58,000 adults
live
> in the official Gaeltachts. In the 1996 Census, 21,000 of these adults
said
> they spoke Gaelic Daily, 5,000 said Weekly, and the remainder marked less
> frequently than weekly or never. With regard to the 21,000 who claim to
> speak it Daily, there's good grounds for believing that most of these
don't
> use it as their main vernacular. For one thing, nearly half of the 21,000
> are in localities where the majority of their neighbours don't claim to
> speak it Weekly, i.e., localities where English is unquestionably the
> predominant local vernacular. For another, almost nobody in the Gaeltachts
> is raising their children with Gaelic as the first language. Every
> five-year-old in the Gaeltachts can speak English as well as or better
than
> Gaelic. Some children may still be found who can speak both, but there's
> none whose command of English is inferior to his/her command of Gaelic.
For
> another thing, residents in the Gaeltachts get money from the Government
> simply for being Gaelic speakers and some also get money to provide
> facilities for children attending Gaelic-language summer camps. (Every
> summer, thousands of Irish children go to Gaeltacht camps and stay at
> small-scale facilities provided by locals. The locals are well paid for
it,
> but to qualify they must declare themselves to be Gaelic speakers).
> Sources: http://www.struct.net/IrishEduc/CompulsoryIrish.htm
>
> http://www.struct.net/IrishEduc/TiocfaidhAris.htm
>
>
>
>

" Doyle" <dmdoyle@iol.ie> wrote in message
news:HGWg4.4463$as2.12470@news.iol.ie...
> What the fuck is your problem, is it because we are perfect and you are
> jealous coming from an underdeveloped third world country?


You of course being a shining example of all this.............?

Mayhem.

I had a great trip to Shannon Airport last Friday.
Mayhem <Havocman@Hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:861jac$2pp$1@fraggle.esatclear.ie...
>
> " Doyle" <dmdoyle@iol.ie> wrote in message
> news:HGWg4.4463$as2.12470@news.iol.ie...
> > What the fuck is your problem, is it because we are perfect and you are
> > jealous coming from an underdeveloped third world country?
>
>
> You of course being a shining example of all this.............?
>
> Mayhem.
>
>