Under Standing Order 112, I move that special leave of the House be granted to take the Final Stage of the Bill now. They want to get on with the work in Galway and there is good reason for granting this special leave.
Private Business. - Galway Harbour Bill, 1933—Final Stage.
I second.
Agreed.
Question proposed: "That the Bill do now pass."
Before the Bill passes, I should like to say a word or two. I did not oppose the taking of the Final Stage now and I do not propose to vote against the Bill. Nevertheless, I regard it as regrettable that a Bill dealing with Galway, the only urban area of any size in the country in which a large proportion, and probably half, of the people speak Irish, should pass this House without any recognition in its provisions of the position given to the Irish language in the Constitution. One of the reasons why I do not object now is because it is a late stage. I was not in the House when the Second Reading was being dealt with, when I might have been allowed to raise this matter at greater length and perhaps more effectively. I think it is a pity that the Department of Education, which might be regarded as the Department most concerned with Irish, did not raise the matter in its memorandum, so that when the Bill was in Committee, some suitable amendment, if one could have been devised, might have been inserted. Personally, I recognise that the proposals in the Bill are of economic value to Galway and, for that reason, I am glad to see the development of the harbour take place. I think, however, that whatever may be the economic value to the city of Galway, of the works proposed in this Bill, a proper attitude on the part of the people of influence and authority there towards the Irish language would do a great deal more to advance that city. I once said in the city that if they would only look at the matter correctly and take the right attitude, the people of Galway had, in the Irish language, something like a gold mine for their city.
There is one final point I wish to make. I have a resolution from the Galway Harbour Board in which it is resolved that the Irish language shall as far as practicable be the language of the Commissioners and that in all future appointments a competent knowledge of the Irish language shall be essential. I do not doubt the good faith of the Commissioners, but I cannot but regret that something to that effect is not actually in their Bill, and is not going to be in the Act when it becomes an Act. For a great many years—I suppose right up to the appointment of the Local Appointments Commissioners—public boards all over the country had resolutions in their books to the effect that only persons with a competent knowledge of the Irish language would be appointed to certain posts, but, as a matter of fact, in practice, if a man had the right uncle, or the right cousins, it did not matter what sort of Irish he had and I would be afraid that, no matter what are the present intentions of the Commissioners, when they are not bound down by the provisions of the Act the claims of the language will be more or less ignored. However, this whole matter is one which I hope to pursue further in other ways.
Question put and agreed to.