Ba mhaith liom aird an Aire a tharraingt ar scéal a foilsíodh an tseachtain seo caite ag Méabh Ní Thuathaláin ar tuairisc.ie. Deir an t-alt go bhfuil sé: "...deimhnithe ag Childline gur i mBéarla amháin a chuirtear a gcuid seirbhísí ar fáil in Éirinn i ndiaidh do Tuairisc.ie fiosrú a dhéanamh leo faoi chás inar dúradh le hoibrí deonach gan labhairt le páiste i nGaeilge". In no way do I wish to cast aspersions on Childline, its services, the extremely important work it does and the volunteers who work for it, but in this case a volunteer was instructed not to speak to a child in Irish. A child rang Childline, spoke Irish and by a stroke of luck somebody at the other end of the line was able to respond in the child's native language. It is unacceptable that a volunteer would be instructed not to respond to that child as Gaeilge, the child's native language. The Coiste na Gaeilge has heard stories from Tuismitheoirí na Gaeltachta about speech and language services and health services. It is unacceptable.

The Deputy kindly flagged that he was going to raise this issue. I am trying to get more detail about how best we can respond to it. Let us not forget that Childline is not a State agency. It is a service that gets some State funding, but it gets a lot of private funding as well. It is providing a very important service and we have to put some thought into how we can ensure that the service provided by Childline can also be provided for children who use Irish as their first and daily language. However, we must do that in a way that does not undermine Childline's core work and the number of calls it is taking and dealing with daily. The Deputy has raised a valid issue but we need some time to think about how we can respond appropriately, not undermine Childline but at the same time try to provide a service for those who seek a support service in Irish.

The Deputy might submit a Topical Issue on the matter. I call Deputy Patricia Ryan.