Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Tá brón orm nach raibh mé in ann bheith anseo ag tús an chruinnithe mar bhí mé sa Dáil. Léigh mé na páipéir a bhaineann leis. I was interested to hear about the position of education in Gaelscoileanna, and I saw a note that more than 4,500 children are in Irish medium education in the North. That is something to be welcomed across the country. I read about the rebroadcasting of TG4 across the North and although it is welcome, it is not available in some parts of the greater Belfast area. Perhaps the committee could make some strong representations on that. The issue of media is very important, whether it is Raidío na Gaeltachta or TG4 broadcasting programmes in Irish.

Acht na Gaeltachta has been referred to and there is a feeling, as mentioned by Mr. Ó Catháin, that the British Government must make an announcement as the feeling is it will not come from any other quarter. There is an issue about encouraging the Irish language. I take the point by Deputy Feighan that sometimes people can be particular about the canúint, grammar or the way the Irish language is spoken. It is great to see people having a go at speaking the language. To take Deputy Smith's point, there can be a certain hostility about the way people deal with it. We are often told that Irish thrived because the British Government did not want us to speak Irish and the hedge schools came about because were not meant to have our religion or language. That is why they thrived so well. If there is hostility or at least no encouragement, could Irish thrive? Overall, there are a number of proposals that our committee could make with regard to TG4 or Raidío na Gaeltachta and there could be more coverage of Irish programmes.