Feargal Quinn (Independent)

Ba mhaith liom cúpla focail a rá as Gaeilge mar tá a lán grá agam don Ghaeilge agus is dócha go bhfuil a lán grá ag a lán daoine don Ghaeilge. Many of us, who are not very competent but who are anxious to see the Irish language succeed, would wish to see the money we invest in doing so being used efficiently. I have a concern that we have failed miserably with the money we have invested, but some of the decisions made have been wrong.

For 30 years, since we joined the European Union, we recognised that it would be wasteful to insist that every European Union document should be translated into Irish but three years ago when Malta decided that it wished to haveMaltese recognised as one of the languages, we changed attitude and stated that if little Malta, with a small population, was to insist that Maltese should be translated as one of the recognised languages, we should do the same. A great deal of money is being spent on translating almost all European documents into the Irish language. That is wasteful. In recent years we made decisions that all State documents and many others, including annual reports of semi-State bodies, should be produced as Gaeilge. Last year, the production of the road safety report was delayed for that reason. That money should be invested in an efficient manner that would result in a more realistic approach to encouraging the Irish language.

I spoke to a person from Malta the other day who told me they do not have any teachers of Maltese in Malta because the 30 teachers they had now work in Europe translating documents into Maltese. Rather than spending the money in that manner, they are calling for the money to be put into education, universities or the Maltese language in some form or other. That is a step we could take. Those of us who wish to see the Irish language become one that is loved by the citizens and is used should ensure we use that money much more efficiently than we have done in recent years.