Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I supported the proposals on decentralisation provided they would be done on a voluntary basis. I agree with the point that Senator Brian Hayes made and the point the representatives of the workers have been making over the past week. It will undermine the process of decentralisation if we reach a position where a person's career prospects will grind to a halt by virtue of what is being proposed. It is unfair to say to a person that he or she can be promoted provided the person is prepared to sell his or her house, take his or her children out of school, incur expense in various ways and move to a different location in order to continue his or her career.

That is wrong because people had clear and understandable expectations about how decentralisation would proceed. Any other group of workers, including Members of this House, might react in the same manner if someone was to unnecessarily pull the rug from under them.

This issue should be debated soon. I understand that 13% of the decentralisation programme has been carried out, which is satisfactory progress. From the outset a number of Senators argued, and everyone on this side of the House believed, that it was ridiculous to think that decentralisation could be implemented in three years. Senators on this side of the House asked the Minister to consider making it a ten-year programme. It will take seven or eight years to implement the programme at the best of times. Decentralisation can work and is progressing but will be undermined if people are compelled to decentralise.

Seo Seachtain na Gaeilge. Nuair a tháinig an Rialtas seo isteach, dúradh sa programme for Government go mbeadh plean aige don Ghaeilge that would be outlined and put into operation. Níl sin feicthe againn — níl sé ann. Ba mhaith liom díospóireacht ar aon dhul chun cinn ar an phlean sin agus cad é go díreach ar aigne an Aire. Ba mhaith liom brú a chur ar an Aire dul chun cinn a dhéanamh. I would like to carry out an audit of the issues in which the Minister takes an interest and the issues which he ignores and the real needs of Gaeilge and Gaeltacht both in and outside of schools. I would like to discover why he avoids introducing every positive, creative and progressive proposal for the Irish language and insists on carrying out measures such as forcing companies to do things they neither want or need to do and which are of no use to the Irish language.

Regardless of whether one agrees with him, the points made by the leader of Fine Gael, Deputy Kenny, have created a necessary and growing debate on this issue. This issue can be debated in a much more constructive fashion in this House than in the Dáil because people on both sides share views on the matter. I would like a debate on the Irish language and the Minister's plans for it.