Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

Bord na Leabhar Gaeilge subsidises and assisted with the publication of books in Irish. On 1 January 2008, funding and responsibility for that matter was transferred to Foras na Gaeilge. The bord was established in the 1950s when there was no Foras na Gaeilge. As the Opposition rightly states, we should also examine if we have too many agencies, boards, groups, head offices and so on. This is one case where some North-South synergy makes some sense, although it is only being funded from the South, and giving Foras na Gaeilge responsibility for that.

I have seen much commentary on Lá Nua. Foras na Gaeilge provided funding for the newspaper after a tender competition. If a tender winner cannot comply with the terms of the contract signed, to get more money without a new competition would give a legitimate grievance to those parties who failed to win the competition that the terms had changed.

It is not a question of Foras na Gaeilge being mean but of good practice. If Lá Nua cannot continue to publish according to the contract with Foras na Gaeilge, Foras na Gaeilge has no option to declare the contract cannot be fulfilled. There was mention of publishing it on the Internet but publishing in paper form was what the original contract demanded.

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