Certain papers were circulated to us dealing with transactions in the Dáil some days before. It is not necessary to supply them to every Senator but they are legally necessary for the sake of records. In one of those which I got, entitled "Proceedings of Dáil Eireann," I am given to understand there is a mistake in the Irish. Scholars disagree largely about the genitive. They say if the genitive is followed by another genitive it should remain unchanged. That is not the point. The point is one which touches the country in a more vital way and that is, can we afford, at the price it costs the country, at this particular moment, to foster Irish? It seems to me that if we went into a museum, took some antediluvian monster, re-habilitated it, and try to make it modern, it would be the same. That is hardly a fair parallel.
MATRIMONIAL MATTERS. - IRISH TRANSLATION.
AN CATHAOIRLEACH
Does that purport to be a copy of the proceedings in the Dáil?
Yes.
AN CATHAOIRLEACH
We have nothing to do with that.
They were sent to us.
AN CATHAOIRLEACH
You need not read them if you wish.
If we are paying £400,000 a year surely we ought to have it correct.
The Senator has himself indicated that if one genitive follows another the first one is indeclinable. I speak to you as a person who probably knows more about Irish than any other Senator here, and I say that the words Senator Gogarty says are incorrect are perfectly correct. Therefore, the whole thing is a storm in a tea-cup. I protest against the raising of this matter of a mistake which is not a mistake.
If Senator Dr. Hyde were here he would disagree with Senator MacLysaght and would give me a better chance of explaining. I want to call attention to the uncertainty of the scholarship of Irish and the inadvisability of the country any longer contributing a sum as large as this to place Irish in its modern form, which is something like Esperanto. The sum is large enough to relieve the poverty in the slums, to pay for the Shannon scheme, or to give a reduction of 6d. in the £ on income tax.
AN CATHAOIRLEACH
The House stands adjourned until three o'clock to-morrow. If the Appropriation Bill is concluded in the Dáil on Friday, we will meet on Tuesday at three o'clock. Otherwise we will not meet until Thursday.
The Seanad adjourned at 6.45 p.m.