Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Gracias.

As I have said in the Dáil, we have a national hang-up about languages in this country. Quite frankly, we will have to get over it. I do not know what the reason is. I do not know whether it is because of the historical connotations of the Irish language of poverty. We have our own national language here that, let us be honest, very few speak and that then leads to difficulties.

The challenges are considerable. When I go to European meetings, I am surprised at the amount of English that is not spoken. People are using English but many countries are using their own languages. In fact, I spoke Irish at the General Affairs Council last week. I was pleased to do so. The French certainly do not use English at European meetings and they would probably prefer if we were speaking French to them as well.

We must upskill. The Government is absolutely committed to this. I am bringing forward a policy on recruitment into the European institutions where our biggest problem is the lack of languages. It is not only so that we can all say "Bonjour", "Danke", or whatever. We need a deep level of understanding and a high level of language capability among our graduates if we want to have people working in the European institutions.

We must change the national attitude around this. At our disposal on every phone and television, we have Netflix where all of these television programmes are available in all sorts of languages. Our young people, particularly, have a considerable opportunity now if they decide that languages are the thing for them. When I was doing the leaving certificate, I went around in my father's car with a tape listening to conversations to practise for the oral examination. Now one can watch every programme. We need to grasp these opportunities to become fluent in other languages and go out there to other countries, particularly to the European Union, and be confident about it. We need to put our case there, as our forefathers and foremothers in the Dáil and Seanad did, for instance, in 1919, when, as I stated, George Gavan Duffy read the Declaration of Independence in French to speak that language of diplomacy.

I thank the Senator for raising the issue. It is a priority for the Government. I will certainly bring the points that the Senator raises to the attention of the Minister for Education and Skills, who is dealing with Covid-related matters in schools this morning. The Minister is supporting Covid teams that will be giving help to schools in the next few weeks. That is why Deputy Foley is not here and she asked me to convey her apologies to the House.