asked the Minister for Finance whether he is aware that certain Departments of State, including those of Finance (Commissioners of Public Works) and Posts and Telegraphs, answer correspondence addressed to them in the English language by correspondents who do not understand Irish, in the Irish language and whether he will issue instructions that such answers shall in future have attached to them a translation of their contents into English.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Correspondence in Irish.
I am not aware that in the Departments named in the question, or in other Departments, the practice referred to by the Deputy is followed. If the inquiry concerns letters of acknowledgment, I may state that for a number of years past the practice laid down for the Civil Service generally requires that acknowledgments of letters received in Government Departments from persons resident in the Saorstát should be issued in common form printed in Irish only, and there is no reason to think that this arrangement has created any material inconvenience to correspondents. As to the individual replies to be sent to communications, the general official instruction is that all letters in Irish received in Departments should be replied to in Irish. In the circumstances, I see no necessity for the further instruction suggested in the question.
May I submit to the Minister that I have in my hand a letter of acknowledgment received from the Department of Posts and Telegraphs, the contents of which were not understood by the recipient thereof, and that his failure to understand them caused him considerable personal inconvenience? I have also another similar letter received from the Board of Works, which gave rise to considerable inconvenience as a result of the inability of the recipient to understand it. Would it in any way derogate from the status of the Irish language if, in these form letters which merely say that the Minister has received your letter and is looking into the matter, there were subscribed thereunder in minor print a translation of the contents of the body of the letter?
I am afraid that our predecessors, in their wisdom, laid down the present form, and I see no reason for departing from it.
Am I to understand from the Minister that he is falling back on the usual justification—"Oh, wrap the Cumann na nGaedheal flag round me, boys"?
The Deputy is living in a dead world; Cumann na nGaedheal does not exist.
It did exist when the Minister took example from it.