Vol. 122 No. 9
I move:—
That a sum not exceeding £4,950 be granted to complete the sum necessary to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending the 31st day of March, 1951, for the Salaries and Expenses of Commissions, Committees and Special Inquiries.
A parliamentary question has been addressed to the Minister on more than one occassion with reference to the Commission on Place Names, and I should like to ask whether it is the Minister's intention to maintain this body in the state of suspense in which it is at present or allow it to function in the way it was intended to function when it was set up ?
I said, I think, even last year that this commission had been suspended and that I intended to keep it suspended until the Minister for Education had given more thought and consideration to the development of the Irish language. I am not objecting in any very vehement way to the amount of money spent in connection with the Irish language, but it has been to my mind expended in a rather wasteful way and I think there should be more co-ordination in relation to that expenditure. It is intended that that commission will be kept in that suspended state for some time.
I think one is right in protesting against the statement that this is wasteful expenditure. If it is wasteful expenditure, then a great deal of the money which we voted yesterday under the External Affairs Vote, and which we have voted in the past under other votes, is also wasteful expenditure. The position is that nothing has been done about this work on place names and the Minister, after his accession to office, fastened on the point that in fact this commission had not been set up until 1946. If we were to take the Minister seriously, and most of us do not because he simply makes debating points, then no new development ought ever to be attempted in the sphere of culture or research in respect of the Irish language or anything else. Because some Government at some time in the past had not taken the necessary steps to set up such a commission as this, then that is an argument in the future against ever doing anything in that respect. Nobody will believe that that argument is anything other than throughly absurd and preposterous. Everybody knows that in every civilised State more and more money is being spent upon cultural work and upon research work and educational work generally. This Government has advantages under Marshall Aid and in other ways of doing a great deal in that respect. They boast of what they are doing. In his first Budget statement the Minister, when announcing his policy of economy and retrenchment was careful to introduce some phrase about cultural matters, and cultural objects. He said that cultural institutions would not suffer. The only reason why the Minister is keeping this commission on in the ridiculous position in which it is at present — he has not the courage to abolish it completely and merely leaves it there in this idioticstate — is because it was set up by his predecessors. I can see no reason why money should be given to other commissions and I can see no reason why the Government should be able to increase very substantially the provision for other commissions of a somewhat similar character and then comealong and say this is wasteful expenditure. If it is wasteful expenditure the Minister should take his courage in both hands and do away with it altogether. We know what the Minister's attitude is with regard to the Irish language. I shall deal with that matter on another occasion. Now, I want to register a protest against this attitude, I want to know whether it is typical and whether it is a general indication of the Government's line of approach with regard to the revival policy of the Irish language and the institutions and movements connected with it.
It is amazing the amount of heat that can be generated over a small point. I referred yesterday to the fact that this commission had been set up in 1946. Let me be more precise about the date now; it was set up on the 24th October, 1946 I used that as an argument in answer to Deputy Donnchadh O Briain who seemed to be getting a bit bothered over what he considered to be a slur on the Irish language. My attitude is that if the matter was of so little importance that the Government in power from 1932 onwards did nothing about it until the last week of October, 1946, it cannot be said now to be a matter of terrific urgency. I also said that I was not doing away with the commission. I had it suspended, but the director is still there. He has an assistant and they are doing certain work in connection with compilation. I also said that we would have this more definitely looked to when we had a correlated scheme with regard to the development of the language. Deputy Derrig might reserve the appearance of anger, which is so very easily produced, until he sees what we propose to do about the language as a whole.
