asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs whether or not in accordance with Bord na Gaeilge's action plan for Irish, 1983-86: (1) a responsible officer has been appointed within his Department; (2) whether an Irish Development Committee has been established; and (3) the stage of preparation the action programme for Irish has reached within his Department.
Written Answers. - Action Plan for Irish.
61.
A responsible officer was appointed in early 1984 and a development committee set up.
Yearly action plans for the Department for 1984 and 1985 were drawn up and sent to Bord na Gaeilge. These yearly targets of my Department have been in large measure achieved. A significant aspect of the yearly plans as far as the public is concerned is that, in keeping with the Action Plan for Irish 1983-86 and on my instructions, they aimed at introducing, on a gradual but reasonably rapid basis, bilingual forms for use by the public, and also where possible bilingual form letters for issue to the public.
By early 1985 the Passport Office, which is the part of my Department most relevant in this respect, had achieved the target of having only bilingual forms, so that Irish was equally available with English to those who wished to use it, side by side on the same forms. All, or virtually all, of the form letters in use by the Pasport Office are also in bilingual form.
Many of the forms used by consular section are now also, or will be before the end of 1985, bilingual. I hope to have this proces continued until, as far as posible, all forms issued by my Department for use by the public for domestic purposes in any significant quantity will be bilingual. I have instructed that the Irish (as well as the English) in such forms be simple and clear, and as far as possible should avoid over-official language.
The outline targets of my Department for 1984 and 1985 under the Action Plan for Irish 1983-86 are to be found in the annex to the most recent annual progress report published by Bord na Gaeilge.