Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I note to the Minister of State that I have never had any problem with people using English. I have always believed that the policy in the House on language should be the same as that in the European Parliament. People should speak in the language in which they are comfortable speaking. If I go to the European Parliament and do not understand the language, I use the translation facilities and reply, usually in English although I have used Irish at Council of Ministers' meetings. Obviously, I do not speak most continental languages and have always felt that it would be better for the Irish speakers in the House if we could normalise that code of practice here. On the other hand, I will be speaking in Irish on this subject as the Irish language media are very interested in it and need the audio information.

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