Dáil debates

Wednesday, 10 November 2021

Garda Síochána (Functions and Operational Areas) Bill 2021: Report and Final Stages

 

8:02 pm

Photo of Catherine ConnollyCatherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister can correct me if I am wrong, but the Garda Commissioner has been in place since 2018. It is now 2021, so it is not just yesterday. Second, there is a misunderstanding about the report, namely, that the investigation was carried out in 2011. The Garda failed to comply with the recommendations in that report and ten years later, ní raibh an dara rogha ag an gCoimisinéir Teanga ach an chéim dheireanach a ghlacadh agus an tuarascáil a chur os comhair na Dála. After ten years of getting nowhere and of correspondence with the previous Commissioner, the Commissioner appointed in 2018 and the previous Coimisinéir Teanga begging and imploring the Garda and seeking to work with it - and I understand it is the Commissioner's way not to bring reports before the Dáil and that this happens only as a last resort - the report was finally laid before the Dáil.

To a certain extent, I can see where the Minister is coming from, but I am empowered by the support, and also by my experience of having the Garda before us at the committee, and all the other organisations that come before us on a regular basis. It is a cur i gcéill amach is amach; it is just pretence. We are using Irish symbolically. We are using Irish as a flag for identity on occasions when it suits, but not as the first language of the country - príomhtheanga na tíre. I firmly believe in encouraging people to use it. I am not interested in punishing anybody. It is not the way to go with the Irish language, but there is an onus on us as Deputies to push for the absolute recognition of the Irish language as the first language and that we would have a bilingual country, but in the Gaeltacht areas that we would have services completely in Irish. To that extent, I have no choice but to press the amendment.

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