cheekycapt,
I completely understand your point of view. I have been learning Irish for almost 13 years so far, and French for 6 years (learned a bit in Primary School). I am unable to use the Irish language properly, but if I'm lucky I might get a B in LCHL next year (what a joke of a subject!). I can understand French much better, Irish just isn't a practical language. But, if they required cadets to have LC Irish even at ordinary level, it would be a good thing. It would/should never have to be spoken when working for Aer Lingus.
A38lephant,
They're not signed up to CTC, but when they were looking for pilots, they went to both CTC and FTE (not sure about Oxford). Check out their websites and you'll see. BA and a number of other airlines have acted similarly.