Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

As a member of Cabinet, I am aware of that. I understand the reason is that translation in the House comes under the remit of the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission, but it was not in a position to ensure the Irish-language version would be ready when the Bill was signed by the President. The problem arising is that under section 7 of the Official Languages Act, the Bill is not enacted until versions in the two languages are available. The Houses of the Oireachtas is dealing with the matter and I have no doubt it will get full co-operation from the relevant Department.

I must further point out that, separately from the Official Languages Act, there is a constitutional obligation to translate all Acts of the Oireachtas into the Irish language. The Act states that the Irish version of an Act should be produced at the same time as the English version, which is to protect us against constitutional challenge in the courts. That is the difficulty.

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