Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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Question 163: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs the reason for his view that Irish speakers are discriminated against, as he is reported as saying at a recent press conference. [22749/04]

Willie Penrose (Westmeath, Labour)
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Question 182: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs further to his recent radio interview, the way in which Irish speakers are subjected to racism; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22797/04]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 163 and 182 together.

At the launch of a recent information pack on racism, I said that as an Irish speaker I had noticed people often profess to love the language and at the same time object if any money is spent providing equality of service in the Irish language to Irish speakers. This was just a one-sentence comment to highlight a point.

The media chose to highlight the comment as the main news item of my speech, something that surprised me as I felt that I had made a number of very important points to the audience that I thought were much more central to the issue of the day.