Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Seo tús Seachtain na Gaeilge agus má tá aon deis ag Seanadóirí ar chor ar bith, ba chóir dóibh an Ghaeilge a úsáid. Is teanga iontach í. Tá sí i bhfad níos deise ná aon teanga a d'fhoghlaim mise riamh agus tá go leor teangacha agam. Ba chóir dóibh a ndícheall a dhéanamh agus dul ar shuíomh idirlín Seachtain na Gaeilge, nó ar Duolingo muna bhfuil sé acu, agus a bheith ag foghlaim an Ghaeilge álainn. It is the first day of Seachtain na Gaeilge. We actually have two weeks of it - coicís. I would encourage all Senators to use their cúpla focal. If a Senator does not have a cúpla focal, he or she should go onto Seachtain na Gaeilge - the website - and learn a few phrases, or perhaps go onto Duolingo. I have several friends who, even though they learned Irish in school, forgot it all but they have gone onto Duolingo and have turned themselves into Irish speakers again. Let us embrace our beautiful language. It is stunning. There are so many things we can say in Irish that I cannot even tell you how to say in English they are so amazing. We have 50 ways to say, "love". We have 32 ways to say, "field". Let us fall back in love with our Irish language this week.

It is local enterprise week. The local enterprise offices, LEOs, have been working ridiculously hard since the beginning of Covid and they have given such great funding. I am a big advocate of small businesses. What I have seen is that the local enterprise offices have really helped small businesses get online. I often see that small businesses have great ideas but their public relations, PR, might not be the best. They might have a great product or a great idea, but their PR is lacking. I would encourage such businesses to go to the LEOs and get help with that because currently business is happening online more than anywhere else. The LEOs gave considerable grants and nearly everybody I know with a small business got online. To that end, I would remind people it is local enterprise week. If one is to support enterprises, go online and support one's local enterprises this week. I commend the LEOs for all the work they have been doing.

I want to acknowledge that it is the anniversary of the recognition of Traveller ethnicity. It was today two years ago that we recognised Travellers as an ethnic minority. That is really important. I worked in a Traveller training centre 21 years ago and I was constantly in rooms full of white settled people discussing how we were going to solve all the Traveller problems. I was at a meeting two weeks ago with several white settled people in a room discussing how we were going to sort out the Traveller accommodation problem.Perhaps it is time that we stop talking about these groups and instead ensure when we are trying to solve problems that we have representatives of them in the rooms for such talks. It is high time for us to move past thinking that we can solve problems for other groups and people without actually listening to them and hearing what they have to say. We have not progressed in any way in the last 20 years in how we deal with Travellers and their demands and needs, except that we are probably recognising their culture somewhat more. I see some movement now in recognising amazing craftwork, coppersmithing and things like that. We need to recognise them and progress beyond talking about them.