Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

An event was held in Farmleigh on 21 December 2006 at which the Minister made a statement about the future of the Irish language. Forum na Gaeilge was an advisory group set up by the Minister. How many times has the group met? How many times did it report to the Minister? When will it meet next? The Minister was to appoint a civil servant to set up an Irish language strategy. What work has this person undertaken? I wish to know the name of the person. A total of €300,000 was set aside for the Irish language strategy. How much of this money was spent? The Minister was to bring in expert advisers to advise him on how to revive the Irish language and how to teach people to speak the language. What has been happening in this regard? I would love to see more people being able to speak Irish.

I wish to bring an issue to the attention of the Minister which I raised with the Minister for Transport this morning. I refer to signage in Irish and the spelling of names in Irish in the Gaeltacht. They cannot even spell the names properly on the signposts. I ask the Minister to speak to the Minister for Transport and to the local authorities to ensure that incorrect signage is taken down and corrected immediately. It is difficult enough for foreigners looking for Clonbur who see it written in Irish but not even spelled correctly. I ask the Minister to deal with this matter immediately.

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