If the Deputy will bear with me for a moment. I was saying that I, as Minister for Finance, would feel precluded from asking the universities for a report of the nature he has suggested for the reason that the universities, as we have reason to know already in this House, and as I have reason to know in connection with a measure which was before the House a couple of years ago, are very jealous of what they regard as their rights and their autonomy in the matter of curricula, regulations and everything that appertains to those who are members of the student body. Accordingly, I feel that I should be courting a rebuff if I were to ask for it. But I have no doubt that the Minister for Education, who is primarily concerned with the propagation of Irish and the encouragement of the teaching of Irish in the primary and secondary schools, does everything that is possible to ensure that the students who go to the university are as well equipped as the resources and the time at the disposal of the State since 1922 have made possible, to embark on and to undertake their studies through the medium of Irish. As the Deputy knows, they do the full intermediate course in that subject and, therefore they ought to be very well equipped indeed to take advantage of whatever facilities the university may be able to place at their disposal for the study of the curricula through the medium of the Irish language. I am sure that in this matter I speak for the great majority of the House, both those who support the Government and for the great majority of those who, in other matters, oppose the Government, when I say that it is the desire of the legislature and the general body of the representatives of the people that the university should do everything they possibly can to foster and extend the study of Irish and the use of Irish as an educational medium. I should like, and I am sure it will meet the Deputy's point of view, that that should go on record, and I have no doubt that those who are responsible for university education in this country will take into consideration what I believe is a very widespread desire, not confined to any Party, of most of those who represent the people here.
With regard to the other matter raised by Deputy Mrs. Concannon, I have a great deal of sympathy with those who are appointed to lectureships through the medium of Irish in Galway College. I think they ought not to be in any worse position than their colleagues on the academic staff but, at the same time, I am not prepared to accept the proposition that the Government must do everything in this matter and that the college should be free of all liability. After all, we do not want to single out those who have been appointed to lectureships or chairs in the university, because of their special qualifications to teach through the medium of Irish, from the general body of the staff of the colleges. We think that they are entitled to the same treatment and that the constituent colleges have exactly the same obligations towards them as they have to any other member of their body.
I am not undisposed to deal fairly with the college in regard to a matter of this sort, but I must refuse to accept the full responsibility for putting those who hold these lectureships on a par with the general body of the staff. That is a matter in which the college is just as much concerned, and has at least as much responsibility, as the Government has. Nobody can say that we have dealt niggardly with the universities or with the colleges which have shown a disposition to advance the policy of the Government in regard to Irish, and I am perfectly certain that as our precedessors were not niggardly, and as we have not been niggardly either, neither will our successors be niggardly. But, it must be made clear to those who have the responsibility for the administration of the colleges that we feel that they should be at least as anxious as we are in this matter. If they are really sympathetic towards what I think is the general desire of the general body of the people who provide them with all their finances, and if they really want to give effect to it, they ought to do even more than the State should in order to give effect to the general desire of the people to have the national language revived and utilised so far as possible in all concerns of everyday life. Whenever a case has been made to the Minister for Education, in the first place, and to myself, as Minister for Finance, subsequently, I think it can be said that so far as we, and everybody with whom we are associated, have been concerned, it has received the most sympathetic consideration. I cannot promise that we are going to relieve ourselves of the ordinary curb which reason and a prudent concern for the interests of the taxpayers in these matters impose on us, but what I do say is that we will not be unduly close-fisted whenever we see a chance of doing something reasonable to assist the colleges in this matter of Irish and of teaching through Irish; but again, I want to emphasise, because I do not want even the authorities of University College, Galway, to think that they are entitled to be spoon-fed, that they must open their mouths as if they were fledglings in a nest every time that this matter of Irish is mooted, that they must show that they themselves are prepared, even at the expense of the rest of the college, to make some sacrifices in order to put Irish in its proper place.
