Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Tá fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I am one of those people who do not have the language although I come from north Louth, which was the home of the Oriel dialect and was a Gaeltacht until it died out. Mrs. O'Hanlon, who was the last native Irish speaker on the Cooley Peninsula, died in the 1960s and her homestead is still there. We have a great heritage of Irish going back to Séamas Mac Cuarta and all our poets. The Cooley Peninsula was the home of culture in the north east but we seem to have lost that.

I welcome the Minister of State's ambition for the Irish language and I was very pleased about the protection of the síneadh fada. It seems small but it is huge. When I was registering my children's names, the HSE told me it could not put sintí fada in its system. I was told that the síneadh fada does not exist but I am glad it now exists. There are a whole pile of small issues but they amount to huge issues when you are trying to have an identity and when you are being refused that identity.

My failure is that I am not a Gaeilgeoir. I love our culture and being able to say some words. We need to learn to have confidence in the cúpla focal and I do not have that yet. It goes from the ground up as Senator Carrigy was saying, namely, in our schools. I would send my children to a Gaelscoil only we do not have them. Gaelscoileanna seem to be exclusive as opposed to the default. We should change that around and make our schools, which are generally English medium, far more Irish-orientated. I have children who I would love to see being able to flourish in the language and teach me how to speak it. The love for the language will grow from our children.

I refer to our place names. John Creedon had a fantastic programme about the meanings of the names of our townlands. An Lú is named after our warrior god and Sligo is Sligeach, the shelly place. Those place names are so meaningful and the words for places in this country are beautiful. A place name was not just a name; it meant something and it was about something. There is a lot of hope in the Bill and I congratulate the Minister of State on it. I wish I was able to understand all his speech. I will have to read it back as Béarla but I wish him the best of luck.