David Norris (Independent)

He has muddied the waters quite a bit by talking about members of other communities and other languages. My mother disdained politics but she was fluent in French, Swahili and Kikongo. Had she been elected to this House or been nominated by the Taoiseach of the day, it would not have been very sensible for her to display her talents at Kikongo or Swahili. English and Irish are perfectly good languages for the conduct of business. I regret the fact so few of us are fluent in what is technically the first national language, which is hardly ever spoken here. I remember a Senate in which the most qualified group in the first national tongue were on these benches - almost every single one of us had some Irish and some of my colleagues were native speakers. It would be absurd to look for a plurality of languages, including Polish. If people are citizens, they should know the language that is used by the people.

My real reason for standing up is to indicate that because it deals with the allocation of funds to political parties, I want to raise an allied matter and signal that I may put down an amendment for Report Stage. I declare an interest. Senator Bacik has indicated the position with regard to the university seats, so I will deal with that matter first. I am very proud of the fact the university seats, as long as I have been in this House, have exceeded any other section of either House of the Oireachtas in regularly providing 33.33% representation in that there has always been a woman representative. They have been very fine and remarkable women, including Ms Carmencita Hederman, Senator Bacik and Dr. Mary Robinson. I am proud of the record of the universities in that regard. They have all tended to be Independents, although occasionally people take a vagary and disappear over to the other side.