There’s 'something going wrong’ with the way we teach Irish in school, Ciara Kelly has warned.

The Newstalk Breakfast host said she is "ashamed" she cannot speak better Irish despite studying it for 14 years.

She was responding to comments by the head of one of the country's best-known Gaeltacht summer colleges.

Mícheál Ó Foighil, manager of Coláiste Lurgan in Connemara, slammed the Government for "putting its head in the sand" in relation to the "broken education system".

He told Radió na Gaeltachta the standard among students is "shameful".

"Shameful"

Ciara said there is a problem with our national language.

"I would fully put my own hand up and go 'My standard of Irish is shameful'," she said.

"I'm actually ashamed that I spent 14 years in school and can hardly string a couple of focal together - I literally can't.

Dashes: "I was a kid who was good at school - as in I was academically good - I did well and I liked doing well.

"People say 'Oh it was probably your attitude' - no - I was getting 'As' in everything else.

"Yet I had this black hole that was Irish; I didn't have a rats what was going on in it most of the time."

Straight As

Ciara said she soon found she wasn't the only one.

"When I went into medicine - straight-A students throughout the class - almost all of them had a hole in their education that was Irish," she explained.

"Irish: there's something going wrong with it."

Heritage

She said it is "shameful" that the national language is lagging behind.

"We were students who wanted to get As in everything, we were that weird cohort, the ones who were competitive academically.

"We still were crap at Irish".

Ciara said she fully agrees with Mr Ó Foighil.

"I think he's right; I think it is shameful and I wish I had better Irish.

"I do think it's something to do with whatever is going on in the classroom," she added.