Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)

Mar aon leis an Seanadóir Ó Tuathail, táim ag iarraidh díospóireachta ar an deontas do na coláistí samhraidh, mar tá an Rialtas ag baint €1.5 milliún ón nGaeltacht. Cad atá á rá le seo faoin ár dteanga dúchais, na coláistí samhraidh agus na mná tí? Is í an cheist ná: Cén fáth go bhfuil laghdú ag teacht ar an deontas? We are talking about increasing our support for the Irish language while at the same time the Government has decreased funding for Irish colleges and, more important, for the Gaeltacht region, a region atá faoi bhrú because of Government economic policy on rural development. I call for an urgent debate on the Irish language and on this grant.

I call on the Leader to invite the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment to the House. This morning, figures for the live register were published. It is at its highest level since April 1998, with an increase of 1.5%. More important and significantly, 260,000 people were unemployed in October and 277,200 people are now unemployed as a consequence of a Government that has no leadership, no bottle, no vision and certainly no patriotism. Where is the Government's plan to manage the economy? Where is the vision? There is none. It makes it up as it goes along. The budget is like a rolling maul. It is going from bad to worse. The Government is going from the 22 yard line to behind its own goal and is losing the game. Irish people are suffering, and the Leader and his party have not realised that.