Sean Barrett (Independent)

I agree with much of what the Minister of State said about "Mol an óige" and I fear the consequence of what we are doing to the Gaeltacht in this Bill is the exact opposite. We need spoken language as in the language of Wayne Rooney and the broken English we use in international conferences. That is spoken in the Gaeltacht. If we undermine the Gaeltacht, Irish becomes the book language, the philology so that children learn it for ten years and as Senator Harte said, they cannot speak it. I plead with the Minister of State not to damage the Gaeltacht and undermine it. That is why I am in the Chamber for all of this debate.

By withdrawing voting rights, the Minister is doing serious damage. The Minister of State referred to fooling the public. That is deeply ironic I presume because on 6 July 2010, two years ago, he gave that great speech in the Dáil about people who were merely postponing voting rights in the Gaeltacht. He was the fear daonlathach that day and he should still be that man. The then Senator Jerry Buttimer gave a fantastic speech here in favour of democratic elections in the Gaeltacht. The fooling of the public is being done by the members of Fine Gael and the Labour Party. Two years ago there were expressions of completely different policies from the then Senators, Deputies Alex White, Frank Feighan, Jerry Buttimer and the Minister of State. I do not know what changed the opinions of these Members.

Do the Fine Gael Members who have a Gaeltacht in their constituency agree with what is going on? Jerry Buttimer mentioned the Fine Gael Deputies who do very well in election. Have they been brought on board? The Minister of State mentioned the President. How will the President, who was a distinguished Minister for the Gaeltacht, feel when he is asked to sign this Bill into law? Did the Minister of State refer to Conradh na Gaeilge? It wrote to me saying it was against the Bill. Donncha Ó hEalaithe has stated in The Irish Times that he is against the Bill. There is significant public opinion against this Bill. One has to reply when the Minister of State states that Conradh na Gaeilge and Donncha Ó hEalaithe are in favour of the Bill, because they are not and have written about their opposition to it. I suspect one of the reasons for the guillotine is that the Minister of State knows this opposition will grow. How can the views of the Minister of State change from being a proponent of voting rights for Gaeltacht people two years ago to being part of a guillotine today?

That is fooling the people.