Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)

I thank the Minister for his comprehensive reply. The Minister stated that a review of the Act is being undertaken by the Department. The Act has been in place since 2003. Is it not time to examine how effective implementation of the Act has been in terms of what is the most important issue at the end of the day, namely, the use of the Irish language, in particular people speaking it? Considerable money is being spent on implementing the Act. There are documents being produced in the Irish language that are virtually unread. For instance, not many people read county development plans much less an Irish version of them. As development plans are important in terms of the planning process they must be accurately translated in order that people can use them.

Are we getting the best value from the resources being applied to implementation of the Official Languages Act? Could for instance that money be better used elsewhere to achieve other objectives? I am not convinced that implementation of the Act is value for money or is achieving anything in terms of the revival and wider use of the Irish language.

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