Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)

While I take it as given that the Minister produced those reports, there is a deeper agenda that needs to be addressed. How much does it cost to implement the Act at the moment? A survey carried out on behalf of The Sunday Tribune discovered that the 29 local authorities - one of which did not need to produce a development plan during the period since the passage of the Act - spent almost €300,000 on translating development plans into Irish. In some cases nobody is looking for them or there is very small demand for them in the Irish language. It costs approximately €10,000 or more for the translation. Is this sensible use of resources with regard to the Irish language? What has that money achieved in terms of broadening the Irish language? We are in difficult times and we need to get the best out of all the money that is spent. I am very concerned that much of the money being spent on the implementation of the Act is not working to benefit the Irish language in any significant way. Enactments are made by the Oireachtas and the Oireachtas can change enactments.

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