June 24, 2003
Much ado.....
The Sunday Tribune was flogging a dead horse yesterday with a story headlined" Ó Cuív attacked as 'elitist' over remarks about Irish language". Eamonn Ó Cuív, Minister for the Gaeltacht, is currently guiding the Official Languages Bill through the Dail. The bill will ensure that state and semi-state organizations will facilitate people who want to conduct business as Gaeilge (the Civil Service already provide this facility in most departments). At a speech in Spiddal, he apparently remarked that it was just as well that English-speakers did not know the full extent of the bill or they would have objected to it. Now, it just the sort of thing that a minister says to put a blas on a speech to the faithful.
Labour TD Brian O'Shea was having none of it.
What the minister appears to be saying is that it is a good and desirable thing that the majority of people in the state are not aware of the contents of an important piece of legislation passing through the Dáil.
That whooshing noise is Brian missing the point. If anyone is guilty of not knowing what's in the bill, it is the Opposition … including Brian. And if Brian and his colleagues couldn't understand what was in the bill, they could have asked for a translation - if they could be bothered...
UPDATE: Vincent Browne hosted a debate on the Offical Languages Bill on his radio show this evening (the audio will be posted here later tonight or tomorrow). Browne tried to pin down Ó Cuív on his speech in his usual style (i.e. by making a statement and asking Ó Cuív to justanswer yes or no to it). After a tiresome bit of jousting, the Minister repeated EXACTLY what he had said in the meeting - as Gaeilge. That left Vincent stumped.