For example , Catalan is only official within a region of Spain , so could benefit from the treaty but Irish can not because it is an official language in Republic of Ireland , even though it is a minority language . Languages that are official within regions or provinces or federal units within a State ( for example Catalan in Spain ) are not classified as official languages of the State and may therefore benefit from the Charter . On the other hand , the Republic of Ireland has not been able to sign the Charter on behalf of the Irish language ( although a minority language ) as it is defined as the first official language of the state .