Ciarán Cannon (Progressive Democrats)

I also congratulate Mr. Des Bishop on the highly enlightening and inspiring series of programmes he aired recently on television. I congratulate Senator Daly for inviting him to Leinster House to speak to the Irish class this morning. The beauty of Mr. Bishop's recent series was that it shows that with a virtually complete immersion in our language and culture, combined with a dedicated effort on the part of people to acquire a language, this can be done in a reasonably short time. The most inspirational part of the programme was when Mr. Bishop met a Korean in Times Square, New York, who has never set foot in Ireland but who spoke fluent Irish with a beautiful Connemara blas.

The newly-appointed Minister for Education and Science should come before the House to discuss the manner in which our native language is taught in our schools. I have an 11 year old son who is of average intelligence. Up to now he has spent six years in our national system——