Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

That last issue is clearly laid down in the Official Languages Act 2003, so they have a right to have court cases heard in Irish, be they in the Gaeltacht or elsewhere.

Regarding gaelscoileanna, responsibility for education is a matter for the Minister for Education and Science. She made a decision on this matter, and as a member of the Cabinet, I support that decision.

On the appointment of civil servants, as I said in my first answer, that has not happened. It will have to happen as soon as we finalise the procurement process because we will need somebody to back them up. Until we have the consultants in place, it is not greatly important, although later it will be critical. The procurement process is drawn out and that is why last year I said it would take two years instead of one. I foresaw that these issues would take longer.

As I said in my reply, the last clear research by Fóram na Gaeilge was last March, but it set up a fochoiste on the strategic plan, which has met twice and will meet again this month. When I set up Fóram na Gaeilge the question was not what Deputy O'Shea said. It was not asked to advise on establishing such a strategy, but to advise on the advisability of having such a strategy. When we discussed it, we decided to have a two-step process. We decided to publish a clear and understandable Government statement on the headlines of Government policy on the Irish language. This was the first time it had happened since the 1960s. To publish a detailed strategy before we had all the headlines in place and publicly known would not have been right. They agreed with that approach and it is worth the extra time to do it this way. Ráiteas i Leith na Gaeilge is a clear statement.

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