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

It was remiss of me. I meant to say that, given the Minister of State has, in amendment No. 171, addressed the point of amendment No. 172, I will withdraw it, but obviously I can do it later on. I take on board the commitment relating to the Irish language. The problem is the length of time it has taken for this legislation to appear. I was first elected in 2002. The first mention of this was in 2004 or maybe even before that. I am concerned that if we leave issues, it will drag on. The intention of the State is that we move towards proper recognition of the Irish language as the first language. I am happy that the Minister of State has given that commitment as we move forward and when the opportunity appears. I thought this was the opportunity to start that process. Reluctantly, I am willing to accept this.

I know the Minister of State's commitment but wonder about the Department's commitment. The Irish language should always have been to the fore. It was not. The Heritage Council should never have existed as the Heritage Council but it did because there was a whole period from the 1970s up to recent years where the State changed totally. One only needs to look at Córas Iompair Éireann, CIÉ. All of a sudden, we have Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, and stuff like that. There was no need for it but people thought we would modernise Ireland and reject what was intended with regard to Irish titles for sites. There are periods where maybe people do not know the name but there was always an Irish name. We had a lecture on placenames, logainmneacha. If one digs it out, there is a name for even the corner field somewhere. It is just a matter of finding it. The same goes for our history and archaeology. There are titles. They might not always be Irish. They could be Viking as well.

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