Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I joined the board of management of Gaelscoil Pheig Sayers in early 2010. The school was on the verge of closing down. It had been left in a business park and had no playground or anything like that. It was unbelievable. The school was formed in 1986 by Brother Jack Beausang and some parents in the Farranree area, on the north side of Cork city, who wanted a Gaelscoil. They could not get funding from the Department and had to run raffles and draws. They set up the school in the Na Piarsaigh GAA Club. It was completely unofficial for two years and had no support from the Department until it finally got some.

When I got involved in 2010, we had 91 students. We were lucky to get the school into St. Finbarr's College, Farranferris. We now have 288 students. We are now getting a school after nearly 40 years. We hopefully will have a school built in two years time but we had to fight tooth and nail. As a person who does not have the language, I was doing it for my kids. My kids will never see it. One is doing her leaving certificate and one is in second year. We fought for it because their kids might go there or other kids in our community will go there. That is what the fight was for. It was for Brother Jack Beausang and other people 40 years ago. I rang the education board in Cork and asked the official - I will not give his name - if he could tell me where the plan was for the Irish language in Cork, Munster or nationally and who I needed to talk to. He said to me "If you find out whoever he or she is, let me know because I would love to meet them". I hear the witnesses discussing a vision. It is absolutely phenomenal that the Government and the Department do not have a vision for the language or a plan such as the one the witnesses are trying to bring forward. It boggles my mind. I am the party's junior spokesperson for housing and as I said in the housing committee, Deputy Ó Snodaigh has put in tremendous amendments to the new planning Bill around housing in Gaeltacht areas. There seems to be a barrier. One person asked me why Gaeltacht areas should be treated differently. If I have to explain that to someone, a person who does not come from a Gaeltacht, we are in trouble. The witnesses are right. We need a vision and we need a plan. We need financial support and forward planning, not two or three years ahead but long-term planning for organisations. I hope some day when I have the time to spend, I would love to see all schools bilingual. In Europe, people are bilingual or trilingual and speak many different languages. I see my own daughters who went into a Gaelscoil and can speak the language. Why was this? It was because they were immersed in the language. I really support what the witnesses are doing.

On the Gaelic Athletic Association, I remember Seán Óg Ó hAilpín lifting the Liam MacCarthy cup and giving the speech as Gaeilge. When my club, St. Vincent's, which is only an average-sized club, won the intermediate football championship in Cork in 2006, our captain Declan O'Connell gave a speech as Gaeilge. He is a primary school teacher. He studied history and Irish in UCC. In some ways, it was sad that we did not all fully understand what he was saying but in another way we were immensely proud. A club from Knocknaheeny, Blarney Street and Gurranabraher on the northside of Cork city had won a county championship and our captain was able to represent us with dignity. It is what the GAA is about. On Siobhain's point earlier on, the association has moved away from our core values of the language, heritage, culture and history. The GAA has an awful lot to do to get back to where we are from and where we were when it was established. From that point of view, we will do everything we can to support the organisations, whether it is in the housing committee or here. I would love to see a long-term plan for the future of the language with the support it deserves and it would be great to see Gael-Taca back open in Cork city.