A Government minister has slammed claims by Fine Gael TD Michael Ring that the “Government are raiding the fund for struggling farmers to pay for Irish language bureaucracy”.
Deputy Ring made his claims earlier this week when he accused the Government of “raiding badly needed support funds for farmers who have been hit by the flooding crisis and falling farm incomes by taking €1 million from the Rural and Social Scheme to meet Irish language obligations”.
However, Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Eamon Ó Cuív has said that allegations made by Dep Ring are total nonsense.
“This is absolute rubbish and worse, it is deliberately disingenuous,” said Minister Ó Cuív.
“Money spent on the first constitutional language of the State is not taken at the expense of the Rural Social Scheme, as Dep Ring is well aware. The deputy is also aware that as the Minister who brought in the Rural Social Scheme, I am committed to maintaining it and to keeping the numbers of participants at the current level. I welcome Deputy Ring's passionate support for this initiative of mine.”
Minister Ó Cuív said where spending on the Irish language is concerned, some extra expenditure has arisen with regard to training people so that the Government can fulfil our obligations to the European Union in relation to the status of the Irish language as an official working language of the European Union.
“Fine Gael was well and truly on the bandwagon for full status for Irish in the European Union. Fine Gael fully supported the all-party motion in the Dáil. When I raised issues about the need to ensure that we had enough competent staff to undertake the translation and other work, I was rubbished. Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny, berating the Government in January 2004 for not seeking full recognition for Irish, told the Dáil that 'It would be hard to invent a better way of discriminating against genuinely bi-lingual Irish people in the European job market.’”
Minister Ó Cuív has called on Fine Gael to clarify its official party policy on this issue asking members if they are in favour of the Official Languages Act or not.
