Dr. Niall Comer:

I will answer that briefly and address another point. Chuir an Seanadóir Mullen ceist an-tábhachtach ar fad agus d’ardaigh sé pointí tábhachtacha riachtanacha. We should also mention the point about, unfortunately, the politicisation of the language by opponents of the language. That has to be mentioned, whether it is an elephant in the room or not. Accusations of politicisation may well be true but it has been largely been done by those opponents to Irish language legislation who see this as submission or giving in to something. We know that this is not the case. Those who are supportive of Irish language legislation have presented, ad nauseam,the benefits of this and shown the benefits not only of Irish-medium legislation but also the benefits of bilingualism and the cognitive benefits of raising children in a bilingual society. All of this is research-based. I refer back to the idea of hearts and minds and part-time language. We have moved on from this to an approach which explains clearly the need for legislation etc. Unfortunately, there is still work to be done to break down the barriers that people have regarding the language and over-politicisation of the language by opponents of Irish language legislation.