Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein)
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Tuigim é sin. Níl mé ag cur locht - beag ná mór - ar aon duine anseo ach is léiriúchán é ó thaobh na Tithe anseo. Mar a dúirt an Coimisineir, sa Bhreatain is féidir leo a rogha teanga a úsáid nuair is toil leo é sin a dhéanamh. Ní féidir linn é sin a dhéanamh, fiú sna Tithe seo. Daoine a bhíonn an cumas orthu déileáil as Gaeilge de ghnáth, níl siad ábalta é sin a dhéanamh. My apologies - I am noting the point made that we do not have translation facilities.

While I do not point the finger at anyone in particular here, it shows that the policy of the Houses does not support me in my rights as a parliamentarian who wants to use the language, or the delegates, which is a disappointment.

On the Act, some very interesting points have been made. I also sit on the Public Service Oversight and Petitions Committee which deals with the various ombudsmen. We had a very interesting meeting the other day with the Financial Services Ombudsman, Mr. Bill Prasifka, who noted that compared to the Official Languages Act, he had a very strong Act, including very serious sanctions he could impose on financial services institutions which did not follow the legislation. He said that while he had had the powers for a number of years, last year he was also given the power to name and shame. He said that since he had used the name and shame power, he had achieved a much higher compliance rate among the organisations under the auspices of the Act.

We deal also on the committee with the language commissioner, An Comisinéir Teanga, and my sense is that the previous commissioner, Seán Ó Cuirreáin, and the current office holder, Ronán Ó Domhnaill, and their teams have done a very good job. They have done exactly what they have been asked to do, taken all of the complaints on board and followed the procedures, but they have not received co-operation from semi-State bodies and Departments. For a long time the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht did not live up to its own commitments as regards the Act. There is a huge backlog in the schemes, in particular, not being ratified by the Department. We have legislation which is not enforced. The Garda Síochána element is being enforced from a policing point of view, but the judicial element whereby semi-State bodies and Departments are taken to task and made to observe their legal obligations is severely lacking. I would welcome the delegates' opinions on the heads of the Bill, as I agree with Conradh na Gaeilge that it is a huge step backwards to move towards what is suggested.

What the delegates said about their capacity to review legislation, as it was being passed and, so to speak, Welsh-proof, was interesting. They might tell us a little more about how that process works. We do not tend to have that capacity here. A colleague of mine put forward an equality proofing Bill which was not accepted but which would have required the equality proofing of legislation on all grounds, including equality in language. Is the Welsh scenario in the context of similar legislation or is there a specific provision in the Act that constitutes the language commission? Is there specific equality legislation? There are two ways of doing it.

It is interesting also in that most of the activity we have seen on the part of our own language commissioner is in the area of semi-State bodies and Departments, etc. The Act does not govern the private sector, whereas there is a very different scenario in Wales where the commission has a wide remit. Before we came into the formal meeting, the delegates told us about the good work being done with supermarkets. People walking into shops and businesses in Cardiff get a sense of bilingualism in these outlets, but there is no sense of this being extended here in the heads of Bill we have seen. Is that somewhere we should be going? Groups such as Gallimh le Gaeilge in Galway have done great work, as have Clár as Gaeilge and other organisations around the country. There is a much more vibrant sense of bilingualism in shops and cafés in Belfast. How was the Welsh language commission able to achieve this? What is the role of the private sector?

On the transition from schemes to statutory standards, I take it that the delegates are talking about a rights-based model which gives people a right to do things in their own language. How long will the transition take and how will it work? The delegates invited a question on the length of the language schemes and I will ask it. They said they would have more to tell us about the length being increased from three to seven years. I am interested in this issue.

On the practical side of things, the point made by Mr. Julian de Spáinn is an important one. He might correct me, but either 3% or 6% of staff in the administrative section of the Department of Education and Skills are proficient in Irish.

Was it 3% in the Department who were proficient in Irish? The Department of Education and Skills is probably one of the most crucial when we talk about the development of the language, but Mr. de Spáinn might correct me on that point.