Ba mhaith liom rud éigin a rá mar gheall ar an tairiscint seo. Tá an-chuid cainte agus an-chuid díospóireacht cloiste againn inniu agus Dé Máirt seo caite mar gheall ar an gceist seo. Molaim Bord na Gaeilge, dream atá ag déanamh a ndícheall ar son ár dteanga thuairim láidir go bhfuil pointe criticiúil sroichte ag an tír seo faoi láthair ó thaobh eacnamaíochta agus cultúir de. Glacaim leis go bhfeictear d'an-chuid daoine gurb é stádas eacnamaíochta príomhfhadhb na tíre seo. Ní mór a mheabhrú dúinn féin, áfach, go bhfuil ár bhféiniúlachas, ár ndifriúlachas agus ár sláinte mar chine agus mar náisiúin faoi leith i mbaol faoi láthair. Dar liomsa is é an tionchar Anglo-Meirceánach an rud is mó a chuireann ár gcultúir i mbaol.
Caithfear a admháil, áfach, go bhfuil easpa suime, muiníne agus meas ar ár nósanna agus ár dtraidisiúin féin go mór i gceist freisin.
Our identity and viability as a nation are in my view now at a critical point in our history in both the economic and the cultural spheres. Although many now see our problems as primarily economic, our distinctiveness as a separate race is also under threat. The main reason for this is the influence of our mass media dominated by commercialised Anglo-American super culture. A complementary factor has been the failure of our own national media to provide a service which would fully reflect traditional Irish values and customs, or certainly those of rural Ireland. I believe that an entire generation of Irish men and women have now grown up under the daily influence of Anglo-American values, customs, music, terminology and so on. It is not surprising, therefore, that we hear of children in traditional Gaeltacht areas now using English as their first language and in breac-Ghaeltach areas only a few elderly native speakers remain. Even in the rest of rural Ireland terms such as a ghrá, a stór or alanna are no longer to be heard. They are replaced by imported terms such as "dear" or "love" or "honey" and so on. This is not the ideal the founders of our State hoped to achieve. Can we really as a race not see that our traditions and customs are being invaded, submerged, if not indeed obliterated, by the very powers from which we had striven for so long to liberate ourselves? One would certainly feel that terms such as a stór or a ghrá were indigenous to the soil of Ireland, things which were there for centuries. Of course there is the odd Irish word which has gone into the international vocabulary such as smithereens for smidiríní but they are few and really the exceptions.
To be realistic, however, we must recognise that if the language is to survive or develop it must be functional. An Bord Gaeilge have indicated that the Irish language could be used more in the commercial, social and cultural activities of Irish people and a more practical approach could be adopted in the educational sphere.
In the area of commerce Irish manufacturers have used Irish terms such as Cara matches and Tintawn carpets, Troscán furniture and Siúcra which we will be hearing more about this afternoon. We are being continually advised by the Irish Goods Council to buy Irish, and the vast majority of Irish people would immediately recognise products such as Siúcra, Cara and so on. Why can we not extend it to bróga, cóta, feol agus mar sin?
I was thinking this morning of the success Bord Fáilte has achieved. They have been engaged in promoting tourism to foreigners and yet they have been foremost in using Irish terminology. We have terms like céad míle fáilte and sláinte and so on as well as Irish folk music and customs which are used with great skill to attract foreign tourists. Other nationalities when they come here expect us to be different and to have our own distinctive culture. Even for those reasons, why should we abandon it?
Bord na Gaeilge have focused on the problem of affording people an opportunity to use the amount of Irish they know. One way would be for a person to join a branch of Conradh na Gaeilge or the Gaelic League or Ógras, where those exist. The GAA and Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Eireann have each played an important role in preserving Irish culture. In the case of Páirc Uí Chaoimh in the south, even our most Anglicised of commentators are able to use that phrase when the necessity arises.
There is an enormous amount of goodwill towards the language throughout the country, and a concerted effort should be made by all the national and cultural organisations to stimulate this goodwill. The bilingual question has been mentioned many times throughout this debate, and there is the temptation for people who have the opportunity of using the language in their ordinary daily work to be a little smart and to give the impression that they are a little bit superior. This is a great difficulty experienced by people who should like to improve their language but if it is not all that perfect some of those who think they promote the language are inclined to look down on people who are lesser versed.
RTE could be used to foster and preserve our native culture just as easily as it has been used to diffuse the Anglo-American slang to areas of Ireland where it was completely foreign. Of course RTE use lack of finance in reply to every question put up to them about providing more Irish programmes. Thousands of Irish children of six years and over have not had a single programme in Irish suitable for their age group. Surely it would be practically as cheap to produce a programme like "Bosco" in a bilingual fashion as in English, especially as all the other imported programmes like "Sesame Street" are in the English language. I suppose every age group could claim a somewhat similar situation.
Let us look at what goes on in other countries. In Belgium they too have two official languages, French and Flemish. If there is a French film the sub-titles are in Flemish and vice versa and, indeed, if it is a film in the English language it is sub-titled in both languages. As a start an effort should be made to introduce a similar system in this country. If we are hard on Radio Telifís Éireann, the pirate radio stations take the biscuit altogether. I suppose one could expect to have Irish spoken on these radio stations since English is rather scarce on them also. There are altogether too many colloquialisms, and I look forward to the introduction by the Minister for Culture of his legislation on that issue. Standards must be set for local and community radio stations whenever they are licensed.
It is also somewhat sad and disappointing to many Irish people that some of our main churches have neglected to say even the occasional prayer in the language of our forefathers. Of course they would acknowledge the part the language played in preserving the faith in times past, but for an institution which places so much emphasis on tradition there appears to be something of a contradiction here. This is surely a great pity, as in almost every greeting in the Irish language there is a blessing invoking the power of the Almighty. For example, "Dia Dhuit", "Go mBeannaí Dia Tú" and "Dia is Muire Dhuit". In fact the Irish word for "greeting", that is, "beannacht" is synonomous with a blessing —"Beannacht Dia leat".
It is also interesting to note that our Celtic friends across the Irish Sea in Wales have preserved their own language. This must be partly due to the constant use of their language in Church services. We must also remember that they were under British rule for over 60 years longer than we. There is a message there somewhere for us.
I believe that funds should be more readily available for the encouragement of students and I would like to see a greater use of scholarships, especially for the summer schools. At present only students of vocational schools qualify for scholarships to the Gaeltachtaí. This is something that could be remedied.
On the question of a bilingual approach I should like to see more bilingual application forms for various Departments. I would object to having English on one side and Irish on the other because in that case people ignore the side printed in Irish. If we had some of the questions asked with one line in English and the other in Irish people would be able to see before them the translation and perhaps a little of the language and a little understanding would rub off on them. At the same time you would be taking care not to confuse elderly citizens who would need to complete the application forms for the various Government services.
There is a competent level of bilingualism in local authorities and they can be relied upon to co-operate with Bord na Gaeilge. I am sure they have offered a positive response to the board's suggestion. I hope that all State and semi-State organisations will play their part to ensure that the report before the House will get a positive response and that by the time we have the opportunity to consider this programme there will be a very definite improvement in the status of the language. All that is necessary is a little effort by every citizen in the State.
