Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 10, lines 23 and 24, to delete “or, in the English language, the Judicial Appointments Commission (in this Act referred to as the “Commission”)” and substitute “(in this Act referred to as the “Coimisiún”)”.

Most of the amendments Deputy Ó Snodaigh submitted are straightforward attempts to ask the Government to live up to commitments under the recently passed Official Languages (Amendment) Act 2021. It is disappointing that the amendments related to the Irish language were rejected on Committee Stage and the Government is not bringing forward any amendments of its own on Report Stage. This contrasts with the position of the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, and the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, who engaged on Committee Stage. They met Conradh na Gaeilge in recent weeks and discussed how to improve the Higher Education Authority Bill 2022 and the Electoral Reform Bill 2022, respectively, to ensure that Irish is to the fore in both Bills.

However, the Department of Justice appears to have an approach unlike the rest of the Government and does not seem interested in implementing Government policy on the promotion of Irish. Even at this stage I ask the Minister to reconsider and accept the amendments or at least perhaps commit to meeting representatives of Conradh na Gaeilge and Deputy Ó Snodaigh with a view to introducing Government amendments in the Seanad.

With regard to amendment No. 1, there are examples in Córas Iompair Éireann, Raidió Teilifís Éireann, Bord na Móna and Bord Gáis and many others of public bodies given Irish names only. Such an approach is successful in building a strong Gaelic identity for the State, whose first official language is Irish. Normalising Irish words among the public is useful as part of revival efforts for the language. I have mentioned road signs, and prominence should be accorded to the Irish language version of place names and logainmneacha.

We also know from discussions with the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, about the Higher Education Authority, HEA, that a public body will anglicise its name at any opportunity, and that is hard to undo once the English name has entered general parlance. The HEA's only legal name is An tÚdarás um Ard-Oideachas but the Act establishing it was known as the Higher Education Authority Act, so the body renamed itself.

We proposed on Committee Stage that neither An Coimisiún um Cheapacháin Bhreithiúnacha nor An Oifig an Choimisiúin um Cheapacháin Bhreithiúnacha need an English name. This should be the Coimisiún um Cheapacháin Bhreithiúnacha Bill and not the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill. The response from the Department acknowledged that the Official Languages (Amendment) Act 2021 specifies that new bodies should be as Gaeilge only but argues that it would set a precedent in doing this when the Act is not yet commenced. In summary, the argument was that it would do the right thing but it would be wrong to start doing the right thing now. I do not know if St. Augustine said something like that at some stage.

A Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Noonan, saw no problem setting that precedent with An Coimisiún Toghcháin in the Electoral Reform Bill 2022 and we now know from another Minister of State, Deputy Chambers, that the Official Languages (Amendment) Act 2021 has been commenced and has been formally adopted as Government policy. The provisions of that Act did not seem to be required when we consider the history of RTÉ, CIE etc., which were set up as public bodies long before the Act. I ask the Minister to consider accepting amendments Nos. 1 and 5.

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