Feargal Quinn (Independent)

I examined the Bill and did not quite understand the need for this so the Minister of State explained it well.

In the Constitution if there is a doubt about the meaning of words, the Irish language takes precedence. When I was still in my 20s, I ended up in the Supreme Court with a case against me to do with the word "discrimination". I argued the law being used against me had used the word "discrimination" and the State argued that "discriminate" could only mean "discriminate against" and not "discriminate in favour of". It turned out the word used in Irish was "idirdhealú", to distinguish between rather than discriminate against, and as a result we won the case four to one.

I mention that because I have always been interested that the first official language is Irish and its meaning determines the force of a word. I understand the need for the amendment.