Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Bill and I have no problem with whoever produces it or gets it through the House. That was the intention of Mr. Michael Blanch when he first wrote to me and others many years ago. He wanted to get at least one day per year with a designation to remember an droch shaol. We should do more than just remember and that is part of what is missing in the Bill. It is very easy in some ways to remember but we must also tie this to what is happening in the world today in order that when young people remember, they can equate it to today's events. That could be added to the Bill.

I know there are suggested allocations for the day in question but we should also try to work with the Department of Education and Skills to encourage greater concentration among young people. That would enable them to make the linkages we need as a society and show the world what I hope we have learned from the famines in Ireland over the years. It is about understanding the need to help and reach out to those in South Sudan, for example. That is very important. It is also about recognising those who helped us in our hours of need, such as the Choctaw nation and the Quakers, who played a tremendous role in Ireland. I understand that as I love history, but many people have no understanding of what Ireland went through. We lost an eighth of our population through death and another eighth immediately through emigration. That led to bánú na tíre and we have never recovered fully from what happened in those five years of an Gorta Mór. There were also famines and periods of huge starvation and misery thereafter, including occasions when the potato crop failed. I will engage on Committee Stage of this legislation as well.

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