Irish Language
Dail Éireann — 2020-11-19
============================================================

Pa Daly (SF), Kerry

I thank the Minister of State for his comprehensive reply. In Scotland, the decision has been delegated to local councils so if people go through Motherwell they will see Tobar na Màthar is written at the railway station. If people drive through Wales the priority is the Welsh language. People catching the ferry will see a sign for Abertawe but they might not necessarily know it is Swansea. The Minister of State referred to SI No. 391 of 2008. The difficulty with this and road signs is that the Irish language tends to be smaller and in italics, whereas the English language is in capital letters and much bigger. For example, someone driving through east Limerick sees a sign for Oola, and this spelling is ridiculous. What really should be there is the Irish language Úlla, which means apples, and this is what should be prioritised.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2020-11-19/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:48:48+00:00
Sitting date: 2020-11-19