Vol. 566 No. 1
146 Mr. Carey asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment whether she is in a position to address the concerns of a person (details supplied) about the terms used to describe Ireland in a computer system; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12374/03]
It is understood that the matter referred to is the use in the current OS X 10.2.4 of Apple Computer Company in a menu text for country – language – locales, where the entries "Ireland – English" and "Ireland – Gaelic" appear. Apple's inclusion of entries for both our official languages is to be highly commended and it is to be noted that the choice of the exact descriptors used are Apple's alone and not one on which NSAI has pronounced or had been previously asked to pronounce, the matter being outside its province of standardisation.
However, the NSAI consultative sub-committee on codes, character sets, and internationalisation, which includes a representative from An Coiste Téarmaíochta, is currently considering the matter with a view to forming an expert view on the menu text. This will then be relayed to Apple for consideration in the context of future revisions of its operating system.
