James Bannon (Fine Gael)

What I propose does not interfere with the decision taken by the boundary commission on the boundaries. The names I propose are part of our heritage and culture. When people vote on a referendum on a treaty, we hear it said that we are losing much of our identity to Europe. When politicians return from meetings in Europe and have responsibility for implementing the provisions of a European directive, they blame Europe. People are peeved about the European question. An opportunity is presented here where we could show that at least we retained part of our heritage and culture by retaining the names of the constituencies. I compliment the boundary commission on the great job it did. This amendment proposes only a name change; it is not that serious. I would appreciate if the Minister of State would consider it.

A Dublin treaty may be ratified in a few years time. If this amendment is accepted, at that time we could point to the example of this amendment as evidence of where the Seanad took a decision on retaining the old province names of the constituencies. We hear the terms east coast of America and the deep south. We are Americanising our system. We hear of east Europe, west Europe, northern Europe and southern Europe. We have a unique identity which should be retained on the island of Ireland and I am strongly of that view.

I tabled a motion some years ago at a local authority meeting to a proposal to move the court facilities from a historical building in the centre of Longford town to a greenfield site and that motion was carried by one vote on the day. A colleague, Councillor Séamus Finnan, paid money out of his own pocket to Mr. Shaffrey, an architect, to carry out an audit on the viability of retaining that old structure, and it has been retained. The Minister was in Longford last week and referred to this instance and acknowledged that only for the decision of the local authority, the court facilities in Longford probably would be located on a greenfield site. I am only asking that our culture and heritage be protected. We will put forward a strong case in this regard and point to the fact that we have retained the old Irish traditional names of the provinces. The provinces are dear to me. I have been interested in history all my life and people in those areas should be able to retain their identities.