I, too, regret President Trump's executive order concerning immigrants and refugees. I certainly think it is a retrograde step in promoting solidarity with some of the world's most vulnerable people. However, there were no protests against the Obama Administration's mean and ungenerous approach to the admission of Syrian refugees, if the United States is compared with other countries. It is the right of the US Government to decide who it lets into its country, even if we do not like its decisions. If we were not willing to make pre-clearance facilities an issue over the fact the United States already allowed capital punishment and continued to be enthusiastic about it, I do not think we should be so in this instance either. It seems that there is an element of selective compassion about the responses across the board. There will be things President Trump will do that will horrify us. There will be things that he will do with which we will agree. We must be mindful of our position and need to be consistent.

To turn to a matter that we can influence in this House, ba bhreá liomsa dá dtiocfadh an tAire, an Teachta Heather Humphreys, isteach sa Teach chun plé a dhéanamh linn ar an seasamh atá ag an Rialtas i leith na Gaeilge.

Beidh sí anseo Déardaoin.

Táim ag súil leis. Tá Ard-Rúnaí nua ceaptha ag an Roinn Ealaíon, Oidhreachta, Gnóthaí Réigiúnacha, Tuaithe agus Gaeltachta. There is a new Secretary General in the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. We wish Ms Katherine Licken the very best.

Ní Gaeilgeoir í. Níl Gaeilge aici, bíodh go bhfuil an Ghaeilge agus an Ghaeltacht mar chuid dá freagrachtaí. In fairness, it has been said she will work on her Irish within a reasonable timeframe. However, the fact is it was not a requirement, as Mr. Julian de Spáinn of Conradh na Gaeilge said, gur "údar díomá" dó é nach bhfuil an Ghaeilge ann mar riachtanas do phost mar sin. Proficiency in the Irish language should be a requirement for senior jobs in the Civil Service, particularly where the responsibility for the Irish language is involved. I commend the Minister of State, Deputy Joe McHugh, as during his time as Minister of State with responsibility for the Gaeltacht, he went to the trouble of acquiring a sufficient level of proficiency in Irish to do his job. The Minister, Deputy Heather Humphreys, promised to do the same when she was appointed. I would like to hear from her, not as a matter of point scoring but as a matter of providing feedback for us, on whether she took steps in that regard.

Tá an t-am istigh.

I am very disappointed with my own alma mater, NUI Galway, or UCG as it was in my time, the governing authority of which took a decision recently that proficiency in the Irish language would not be a requirement in selecting the next president of the college. It went through on the nod. Fair play to Deputy Catherine Connolly who raised the issue in the Dáil. The Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Richard Bruton, shrugged his shoulders and said the university's decision was something with which he could not interfere.

He could not either.

Fair play also to Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív who brought forward legislation on this very point to make it a requirement that the person appointed to such an important job have Irish. The Government did not oppose it at that point. It seems that a lot of lip service is paid to the Irish language. However, when one considers the amount of goodwill towards NUI Galway because it is a bilingual university and because it is so associated with the Irish language and culture, it is a disgrace that it is not a requirement in the appointment of a president that the person either have or will within a very short time seek proficiency in the Irish language.

Hear, hear.