Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am happy to engage with Members, but the definition is the definition and I cannot change it but it will have to be interpreted. We can offer guidance because the intention is that it is a high bar, but I cannot introduce changes. This will be the text in the legislation. This will be the legal definition. It is what is legally robust and acceptable.

I do not want to give a false impression that I can go out and that if people want to revert to some other way of looking at this that I can accommodate it. The intention and the purpose and the way we have drawn this is to set a very high bar of fluency. It is associated with a child speaking Irish in his or her normal life. It is definitively not sufficient to have attended a naíonra to qualify.