Feargal Quinn (Independent)

I am sure we should be cautious. However, there is a danger that we could, first, believe that it is not a big problem and, second, talk ourselves into a depression. There are success stories even in bad times just as there are failures during good times. Let us be sure we take this step cautiously — I like the word "cautiously" and ensure we concentrate on something Senator Alex White mentioned, namely,the danger of us becoming uncompetitive. We need to watch our costs and identify things we believed were good to do but are probably not as necessary in these times.

Let me outline one instance. I am an enthusiast for the Irish language — I would love to be better at it than I am. I was jolted to read in the newspaper that 52 new jobs have been created for Mr. Orban, who is Commissioner for Multilingualism in Brussels. What a smashing title. I did not know we had such a man. Some 52 jobs have been created to translate items in the European Parliament into Irish. Last year I spoke to someone in Malta who told me that country can no longer find any Maltese teachers because they have all gone to Brussels to translate everything into Maltese and there are very few Maltese speakers who do not speak English.

This week I spoke to the chairman of a semi-State company, who said he needs to get his annual report translated into Irish. He reckons that no more than 50 people read it in English, apart altogether from Irish. Some years ago we introduced the legislation to ensure we translated everything into Irish to enable those who could only speak Irish to read such annual reports and other State documents. Perhaps this is something we should question. Is it wise? Can we afford to spend that amount of time, attention and money with the delays that take place in translating every document into Irish? I question it.