RTÉ JOURNALIST RÓNÁN Ó Domhnaill has been nominated to become the new Coimisinéir Teanga (Language Commissioner) after the resignation of Seán Ó Cuirreáin.

Ó Domhnaill has been a political correspondent on Nuacht RTÉ and TG4 for the last seven years and has also worked on other RTÉ current affairs shows.

Ó Domhnaill will take up his role from 24 February immediately after Ó Cuirreáin’s vacates the position.

An Coimisinéir Teanga acts as an ombudsman service to monitor the compliance of state services in the Irish language. The position is appointed directly by the President of Ireland.

The Government say that 21 people expressed an interest in the position and that the candidates had a “wide range of experience”.

Ó Cuirreáin’s resignation came amid criticism of the Government when he said that they had failed to improve services to the public through Irish.

Ó Domhnaill, a native of An Cheathrú Rua in Co. Galway, will be appointed subject to approval of the Dáil and the Seanad.

The nomination was announced today by Minister of State at the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Dinny McGinley, who said that Ó Domhnaill is “held in high esteem by the Irish language and Gaeltacht communities”

Conradh na Gaeilge are this weekend organising a march in Dublin over the treatment of the Irish language in Ireland.

Read: 1,000+ for demo over Government ‘lack of support’ for Irish language >

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