Vol. 500 No. 2
117 Mr. O'Shea asked the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources 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. [3850/99]
My Department as part of its quality customer service framework aims to provide its customers with a service through the Irish language where this is required. Given the Department's role in coastal regions, I regard this as an important objective.
The costs of providing this service are primarily general staff costs and it is not possible to attribute any specific proportion of this to the promotion of the Irish language as such. In regard to nonstaff costs a rough estimate in respect of 1998 suggest that expenditure would be less than £2,000 per annum.
The various bodies under the aegis of this Department such as BIM, the Fisheries Boards and Coillte also attach considerable importance to the provision of services through Irish. Estimates of expenditure for these bodies on these services are not readily available.
