Síle de Valera (Clare, Fianna Fail)

As Senators will be aware, the Minister for Education and Science brought the University College Galway (Amendment) Bill 2005 before this House on 14 December 2005. This Bill amends the University College Galway Act 1929 to remove the requirement to appoint candidates competent in the Irish language to offices or positions in the university. It replaces this requirement with an obligation to ensure that the strategic development plan of the university contains a provision for the delivery of education through the Irish language. The president and governing authority of the university are obliged under this provision to ensure that this aim is implemented.

On Committee Stage in the Dáil on 9 February 2006 the Minister for Education and Science proposed one amendment to the wording of the published Bill. The amendment will require the university to ensure that one of its principal aims in its future strategic development plans will be the provision of education through the medium of Irish. The wording in the original Bill stated that one of the aims of the university in its future strategic development plans will be the provision of education through the medium of Irish. This amendment strengthens the original wording of the Bill in that it will now be a principal aim of the university to ensure that its strategic development plans prioritise the provision of education through the Irish language.

The university already has a long and proud tradition in the provision of Irish language courses and I am satisfied that this Bill places an adequate onus on it to ensure this continues to be the case. I am confident this amendment strikes the correct balance between the continuation of NUIG's role in the promotion of the Irish language and the need to ensure that NUIG can fulfil the role which higher education institutions are required to play in the realisation of national economic and social development.

Knowledge is international and intellectual capital is highly mobile in nature. The quality of higher education in Ireland is now measured against the highest standards across the world. In competing internationally, it is counter-productive in the extreme to place limitations on the ability of one of our key institutions to attract the best available international research or teaching talent. In that context the requirements set down by the 1929 Act are no longer relevant. They represent an outdated and unfair impediment on NUl Galway in seeking to develop international standard excellence in research and teaching. If NUl Galway is to develop to its full potential in the 21st century knowledge era, it needs to be free to attract and appoint the very best academics and researchers.

I know that NUl Galway strongly welcomes this legislation. It reflects the unique historical commitment of the college to the promotion of the language while providing it with the necessary freedoms to successfully compete in the national and international recruitment markets. It is an important piece of modernising legislation for NUl Galway. It underlines the strong commitment of the college to the promotion of our native language and reflects the progressive position of the language in the wider legislative and public policy context. I commend the Bill to the House.