Lisa McDonald (Fianna Fail)

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire agus gabhaim comhghairdeas leis. Go n-éirí an t-ádh leis ina phost nua. Molaim an Seanadóir Ó Tuathail as a bheith in ann an Ghaeilge a stealladh le linn a chuid ama ag caint. Is cúis náire é domsa nach bhfuil mé in ann sin a dhéanamh. I am most embarrassed I cannot give my full speech in Irish. This is despite the fact that when I was in secondary school, I would have considered myself to have a líofacht sa teanga nach bhfuil agam inniu. As a practitioner, I would see the Bill as a serious improvement on the current situation. Making it optional to practise in Irish or to hold proficiency in Irish to practise as a barrister or solicitor will encourage the use of the language and of a culture of use of Irish throughout the professions. Perhaps it is more obvious in the Law Library and the Four Courts that barristers hold a certain grá don teanga than is perhaps the case in a solicitor's profession. This could be because they accumulate in the one area more often.

If one were to examine the case of the typical law student, who would go from leaving certificate to university to study law and then onwards to either the Law Society or the King's Inns, most of them at one stage in their lives would have had a high level of proficiency in the language which then erodes through lack of use. If there was encouragement to continue that, such as is provided in this Bill, and to sit examinations and the advanced courses that will be available in legal Irish, there would be a huge uptake. I look forward to reviewing the Bill in a couple of years when we will see the changes that have taken place.

When I was sitting the mandatory Irish exam for the Law Society, a friend of mine of Indian extraction learned off by heart an essay on lá faoin tuath, which had no relevance whatsoever to the practice of law but equally had no relevance to the question that was asked in the exam. Fair play to him. He went into the exam, wrote out the essay word perfect and passed the exam despite the fact it was about lá cois farraige, not lá faoin tuath.

The Bill is a welcome advance. As part of the bilingual policy from the Government, it will enhance the use of the Irish language. I come from an area in Loch Gorman where Gaeilge is not much used and one must go back many years to find Gaeltacht areas where it was spoken. Through the gaelscoileanna and people like Gizzy Lyng, the Wexford hurler who is able to commentate in Irish on TG4, we can now see an upsurge in the use of the language. Much of this is coming from the teaching profession. I look forward to the legal profession taking a role. The Bill will do much to help those people who at one time had proficiency in the language to maintain that and will encourage them to use it throughout their careers.

What will happen with regard to solicitors and barristers who want to get back into the swing of things and become proficient in Irish? I did not notice any mechanism in the Bill whereby they could be retrained in the language. Also, if a barrister wanted to run a case through Irish, are there enough judges at all levels who are proficient in the language? There is an old Irish saying — mol an óige agus tiocfaidh sé. Today, we can say that. If we encourage Irish, it will work. Heretofore, we have made Irish mandatory but this has not worked. This is a new departure. I look forward to and support the implementation of the Bill.