Scotland's biggest city is set to launch its "vision" to boost the use of Gaelic in the community. The three-year action plan for Glasgow includes the opening of a second Gaelic school in the city. Wider use of Gaelic on council signs and in relevant council communications including forms, press releases and letters is also planned.

Local authorities now have a statutory obligation to prepare a Gaelic Language Plan under the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005. Glasgow City Councillor Aileen Colleran said: "We have a vision for Gaelic in our city and this plan sets it out. By 2020, the place of Gaelic will be obvious to all. We'll see it around us - in our buildings, on our streets and in our shops - we'll hear it in conversations, in our schools and in the media. Our young people will be speaking it in Buchanan Street without feeling self conscious about it and people will recognise the language as Gaelic."

THE professor who is to taking up the first chair of Gaelic in Scotland has called for greater investment in the language, despite the spending pressures brought about by the recession. Professor Roibeard Ó Maolalaigh is assuming the permanent post at Glasgow University.

The chair has been created to recognise the university as a centre of excellence for the study of Celtic culture and Gaelic. The announcement came after Glasgow City Council launched its first Gaelic language plan under the terms of the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005 last week.

THE number of dedicated Gaelic schools in Scotland could treble from two to six within two years under plans to increase the number of people speaking the language. An action plan published yesterday also envisages a fourfold increase in the number of teachers training in Gaelic, and an additional 2,000 adults learning the language by April 2012.

Bòrd na Gàidhlig (BnG), the national Gaelic development agency, wants to drive up the number of speakers from 58,000 at the last census in 2001 to 65,000 by 2021 and 100,000 by 2041. Its plan is in response to the Scottish Government's calls for radical steps to create a new generation of Gaelic speakers.