Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Is it not a good thing to say, "I am as Irish as anybody else, but my líofacht in my native tongue is not at the proficiency that it should be, but I'm going to learn it"?

I remember the former Minister of State, Mr. Carey, from County Clare, whose Irish was long gone, went back and relearnt it. I remember the former Minister of State and Leas-Cheann Comhairle, the late lamented Jim Tunney, answering a question from that seat from the former Deputy, Jim White from Donegal. Jim White had no Irish and he was of a different religion. There was a row in this House about religious discrimination and the Irish language, which Deputy Adams is not suggesting now.

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