Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am looking for any way the Department can provide all services to all Irish-language schools through Irish. I do not see every ETB in the country being able to do that. It is impossible to get the resources together to do that because one would virtually need bilingual staff in every ETB. The only other way is to concentrate it and to say that with so many ETB schools and with so much training being done - in the Gaeltacht, the key bit is the education bit - there should be a dedicated unit which would be able to provide a wide range of services through the medium of Irish. Otherwise, it is a question of compulsory English. We are great at counting the figures. The amount of money that is being spent on buildings for Irish-language schools has been mentioned. Of course, if I asked about the money being spent on English-language schools and on supporting the English language, I would be told that it comes to billions of euros. I support the provision of services in Irish to create a real atmosphere. Otherwise, young people cotton on that this is a kind of token thing. They realise that when the real business has to be done, even their own school has to deal in English with the agencies of the Department of Education.