Vol. 500 No. 2
111 Mr. O'Shea asked the Taoiseach the amount of money his Department has directly or indirectly spent on the use and promotion of the Irish language in each of the past five years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3848/99]
The amount of money spent by my Department on the use of the Irish language in each of the past five years cannot be quantified definitively due to the length of the period involved and the changes in functions and transfer of relevant records from the Department in that time. In addition, costs incurred on the use and promotion of the Irish language, such as in some bilingual publications, cannot be disaggregated from the total costs of the service provided.
In the period 1997 and 1998 my Department published a number of reports and documents in both Irish and English. The costs of the Irish versions are quantified at £55,713.
The current policy of my Department in providing services bilingually is outlined in the statement of quality customer service published in November 1997. For the information of the Deputy the relevant extract is as follows:
Extract from Department of the Taoiseach Statement of Quality Customer Service.
Providing our services bilingually.We are committed to improving the level of services we provide through Irish by: answering your correspondence in the language in which you have written; making major publications issued after 1 January 1998 available bilingually; facilitating telephone callers, where possible, in doing business in the language of their choice; making sure that signage throughout the Department is bilingual; ensuring that advertisements placed by the Department are bilingual.
