Students should have the choice of two Irish subjects at Leaving Certificate level, one focused on language and the second on literature and history, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny has told an Irish language conference.
He said it was "madness" that Junior Cert oral Irish was optional and that the Department of Education had no involvement in it.
At a Fine Gael conference on how to "reform, renew and revive" the language in the 21st century, Mr Kenny reiterated his controversial view that compulsory Irish should be dropped after the Junior Cert. "With proper reform of the curriculum," he said, "I believe the vast majority of young people would choose to learn Irish."
The number of exempted students was "rising sharply and it is becoming an Irish solution to an Irish problem".
He added: "What we are doing now simply is not working," and nobody could claim "that compulsion is the best way forward for Irish in the 21st century".
A new subject, "Communicating in Irish", would "teach the language in a similar way to other languages at Leaving Certificate level, with 50 per cent of the marks devoted to spoken Irish and the remainder focusing on useful and applicable reading and writing tasks in Irish".
The focus would be on "excellence in communication".
The second Irish subject would be "far closer to the current Irish syllabus, focusing on literature and heritage for those with a deeper knowledge and competence in the language".
He called for greater focus on immersion in the language for teachers at primary level, making the language relevant through drama, music and sport. At Junior Cert level, the failure to introduce a proper aural or oral component was "disgraceful" and "must be remedied immediately".
Tomás Ó Ruairc of Foras Na Gaeilge said the optional oral exam at Junior Cert "sends all the wrong messages to our young people, it simply does not make sense.
"Currently the system says to the child, the spoken language is crucial, to the young adult it says the spoken language is crucial, but to the emerging adolescent, it effectively says that the spoken language is not important at all."
Dr Kevin Williams of the Mater Dei Institute said it was time to end the "official hypocrisy" of compulsory Leaving Cert Irish. At least 10,000 students were treating Irish "like a charade" - signing in but not doing the exam.
Many "ultra-privileged schools" opted out of Irish, making a strategic decision to concentrate on six subjects that would convert into points, while under-privileged schools saw Irish as having no relevance to their daily lives, he said.
About a third of Leaving Cert students took the honours exam and Dr Williams suggested that it was time to "affirm the one third of good students" instead of forcing students who were not interested. "This is disrespectful of young people," he said.
