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

I support the amendments tabled by my colleague. What surprises me about this issue is that it was necessary to table an amendment because it was not provided for by the Minister, and that the Minister of State, Deputy McHugh, had not suggested to him to deal with this issue. It should become standard practice where new legislation on signage or labels is introduced that they are done in both official languages. No other state in the world would introduce national legislation to have an official notification such as this in only one official language. Perhaps the Minister will explain to us why it was not provided for in the original Bill and why it took an Opposition Deputy to remind him of all of the commitments made by the Taoiseach and Ministers.

The Minister of State, Deputy McHugh, is always telling us about the Government's love of and commitment to the Irish language. It makes a difference to people to see any language in everyday use. It has a major effect on the acceptance of the language as being the ordinary language of dialogue and not just a language of cúpla focail.

I understand the Minister has said there is now a difficulty because of oversight and he would have to go back to Europe to get permission for this. It demonstrates how serious was this oversight, and I would be interested to hear how the Minister will deal with these three amendments. I understand there may not be a difficulty with some of them but how will the Minister rectify an oversight on his part?

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