Vol. 571 No. 2
334 Mr. O'Shea asked the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs if he will give a break-down of the almost 2,000 estimated jobs that will be created on the full implementation of the Official Languages Act; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21415/03]
As the Deputy is aware, the Official Languages Act 2003 is the first piece of legislation to provide a statutory framework for the delivery of public services through the Irish Language. The provisions of the Act, the primary objective of which is to ensure better availability and a higher standard of public services through Irish, include publication of Acts of the Oireachtas in Irish and English simultaneously; use of Irish on oral advertisements, whether they be live or recorded, on stationery, on signage and on notices. The Act includes provision for the publication of certain documents of public interest in each of the official languages simultaneously, for example annual reports, and places a duty on public bodies to ensure that they reply to correspondence – in writing or by electronic mail – in the language in which that correspondence was written. Also, any communication providing information to the public – in writing or by electronic mail – will be in the Irish language only or in the Irish and English languages. There is a requirement that an adequate number of staff are competent in the Irish language, the particular linguistic requirements associated with the provision of services in Gaeltacht areas are met, and that the Irish language shall become the working language of public offices situated in the Gaeltacht areas, within a certain time-frame to be agreed between the public bodies concerned and the Minister.
Clearly, full implementation of the Act will require us to draw on the language competences of significant numbers of people across both the public and private sectors. It was in this context that reference was made to an estimate of up to 2,000 such persons. I did not, at any time, indicate that an additional 2,000 jobs will be created in the public sector as a consequence of the legislation.
The public service in Ireland has a total staff complement of approximately 276,000 people. Additional to this, there will be requirements under the Act on other bodies, as specified in the schedules to the Act. A complement of 2,000 people with a competence in Irish, as referred to above, would represent less than 1% of the public service. It may be anticipated that employment will also be created in training, translating, etc., outside the public service.
