Rónán Mullen (Independent)

In so far as I made general philosophical points about the Irish language, they are relevant because the issue is whether the Government, in its legislation, is going to take as seriously the rights of Irish speakers as it does those English speakers. It is important to reason by analogy, and it is important to speak about issues such as road signs in Irish precisely because what we are trying to do is bring forward a culture in Ireland where people find it as easy as possible to learn and cherish Irish.

We must have consistency in that. In so far as we have legislation that provides for certain actions for the sake of the Irish language community, it is important we have joined-up thinking so that at the level of broadcasting also we would have that consistency.

I respect that the Acting Chairman is trying to move the proceedings. I am worried that when we raise time issues, it would have a chilling effect on Senators as they seek to thrash out the issues in detail.