Mr. Peter Finnegan:

In terms of the obstacles, the first thing that strikes me about Irish is that we are starting from a low base, generally speaking. Deputy Connolly is correct in saying there is significant empathy and goodwill towards the language, but when you look at our starting point, we are starting at a low base. It will take time to develop that. In saying that, we can work in an efficient manner in terms of providing opportunities to people to use the language. I am one of these people who has a lot of love for the Irish language. I spoke it up to the leaving certificate. I lost much of it and I am trying to get back to it now. My own experience is to provide people with as many opportunities as possible and to encourage them and provide a supportive atmosphere towards the use of Irish. That is what I would like to do within the Oireachtas and what we are doing at present, for example, by our straitéis which we have published in recent weeks, to provide the facility for people to get back to Irish.