Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There are three separate issues. I do not understand the drafting and legal problems that would be created by using the official Irish name of a State agency in the English-language version of a Bill, given in the legislation underpinning those agencies both the Irish- and English-language titles are provided for. The point here is more important than that. There has been a long-standing practice where important public institutions are referred to by their Irish-language titles in everyday speech, even by those of us who are exclusive English speakers, and this has never caused us any problem. I mentioned Uisce Éireann, An Bord Pleanála and so on. By insisting that the Irish-language name is used even in the English-language version of the Bill, we assist in promoting the everyday usage of the names of the organisations as Gaeilge. It seems a simple, small thing that should not need to be argued over. I, therefore, ask the Minister of State to reconsider and to also consider what legal or technical difficulty it would provide in this manner.

I am not clear about the arguments he has made against amendment No. 75. The argument in this regard is whatever about the name, information or title, Irish would be the default language used for existing historical monuments or indeed ones that emerge in future. Again, it is a relatively straightforward position. The difficulty, of course, is if something ends up being known commonly through its English-language name it is much more difficult to reverse that.

I ask the Minister of State to perhaps make a further commitment in respect of amendment No. 247. I assume he has no objection to the warning labels on detection devices being in Irish with no less prominence than English. It would be good if the warnings were also in other languages for both our resident population and others.

If the Minister of State was to say to us that at a minimum, both English and Irish should be used and given equal prominence, I would be more than happy to withdraw the amendment, if he says he is going to look at this issue on that basis.