Jimmy Harte (Labour)

I went through national school and secondary school and had an Irish class every day for 15 years. I am embarrassed to say that I have more French than Irish, and I do not speak French very well. We should be in a situation where I could speak Irish comfortably because I spent 15 years learning it at school. If we continue to do this, the next generation will have the same Irish ability as I have. My own bean chéile, my wife, is fluent, from west Donegal, and that rubbed off on my children, who had good academic results in Irish. As well as that, they went to the Gaeltacht every summer, and that was a massive help.

Sinn Féin, which espouses the Irish language, has shown less than glorious commitment in Northern Ireland. On top of that, the MLAs all come to their holiday homes in west Donegal but refuse to pay the local charge in the Gaeltacht areas.