Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

The Official Languages Act derives from the Constitution. The Supreme Court articulated clearly that following various judgments in the absence of a language Act, we could have been ordered to provide any service and document in Irish if requested by a member of the public. The Constitution clearly states that the Irish language is the first official language of the State and to date nobody has proposed to change this position. However, the Constitution wisely made the provision that one could delimit in law the amount of services provided in Irish but this had never been done.

To those who argue the Official Languages Act created new obligations for the State, I state a more tenable legal argument is that it delimited the obligations of the State to provide written and oral services through Irish to its citizens. This express train was coming down the tracks and if I had not introduced the Acht na dTeangacha Oifigiúla, sooner or later this House would have faced a crisis.

The Constitution states all Acts of the Oireachtas must be translated. The statement I made in Spiddal when I introduced the Act has been taken out of context time and again. I was under continuous and increasing pressure from the Irish language movement to include more in the Act. The meeting was not to include more but to tell the movement that I had gone to the limit of reason on what could be included. At the meeting, I stated that despite our best efforts, advertisements and engagement with the public on the other side of the argument was not heard and that the Irish language movement was pushing me too far and I would refuse them. I had to act for the other side of the debate and state, like Deputy Deasy, that the Irish language movement was going too far. One can see the same today as the Deputy who spoke about the Official Languages Act is not here for the debate.

I know, as does Deputy McGinley, what happened in this House and the Seanad. Most of the amendments were from Comhdháil Náisiúnta na Gaeilge and of course the Opposition tabled them. However, we did not have an English language movement organising amendments to go the other way. Despite all the misquotes and misstatements, I ended up arguing that erecting every sign in the Gaeltacht in Irish as proposed by Senator O'Toole was off the wall. I remember asking him how I could put a sign — it is tráthúil and mí-thráthúil — for BreastCheck in the clinic in Tír Oileán in Galway and say it had to be in Irish only.

It is wrong of Deputy Deasy to infer that I single-handedly imposed this while ignoring the Constitution and the fact that it passed after thorough debate in the Houses. My habit is to provide as much time as I can on all Stages of legislation. If Deputy Deasy honestly thinks the duties imposed by the Official Languages Act are too onerous, let him table a Bill to amend it. I am not afraid of debate and I would fully debate and consider his proposals.

See this speech in context