Sean Barrett (Independent)

On the Leader's point about the debate yesterday on "shall" versus "may", for Senators who were not present, it was an important debate. The amendment, which I did not table but supported, sought to amend the Bill by substituting the Minister "may" do something to promote the Irish language, as provided for in the Bill, with the Minister "shall" do something about the Irish language. We wanted the Minister to be held accountable in this regard. It was not a semantic debate. A serious point was being made in regard to the responsibility of Ministers to the courts and the Houses of the Oireachtas.

The Gaeltacht Bill is the worst prepared and worst intentioned Bill to come before this House in a long time. We have identified numerous faults in it and there has been no regulatory impact assessment of it. We are trying to promote the Irish language and the Minister is trying to abolish the democratic election of people to Údarás na Gaeltachta because the Department does not want to be accountable. It is obvious, given the number of notes passed to the Minister by a tribe of civil servants, that that is what is going on. The democratic people in this House should protest against it. We are not deliberating delaying the legislation. There are serious issues to be addressed. I fear for the language if the Department of the Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht becomes as unaccountable as it wishes to be in terms of the legislation providing that the Minister "may" do things and its getting rid of democratically elected people.

I note the publication of more evidence in regard to our problems with mathematics. I am sure Members will agree that what we do not need in this regard is another committee. While I accept the bona fides of the Minister, Deputy Quinn, and Minister of State, Deputy Sherlock, what we need is action, in particular in respect of teacher training because having unqualified people teaching mathematics does not serve us well.

I support the comments made by the Minister, Deputy Howlin, and Senator O'Brien, in regard to allowances and expenses. We need to get this under control. According to the Book of Estimates 2012 travel and subsistence allowances in respect of the Departments of the Taoiseach, Finance and the Environment, Community and Local Government, and the appeals commissioners has increased by 18%, 34%, 53% and 21%, respectively. I am sure the Leader will agree that is unacceptable at a time when we are all facing constrained budgets. I support the call by the Minister, Deputy Howlin, for a full evaluation in this regard and call on him to ensure that the base year for 2013 is the year when the recession commenced, otherwise we could have a situation whereby next year's allowances will be cut by 10% despite having been increased over the years by 23%. It appears the travel and subsistence budget has built up a war chest at the expense of an economy that is in serious recession and wherein money is being cut back in all types of areas. I call on the Leader to ask the Minister, Deputy Howlin, to make a presentation to us on the reason the travel and subsistence budget in some Departments is growing by multiples of the rate of inflation and how this might be restrained in 2013.