Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 25 November 2004
108 Mr. O’Shea asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children if any provision has been made in the 2005 Estimates for her Department for the cost of implementing the provisions of the Official Languages Act 2003; the amount of any such provision; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30787/04]
View answer109 Mr. O’Shea asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children the amount of money that has been spent in each of the past five years on the Irish language in her Department; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30804/04]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 108 and 109 together.
The provision of quality services through Irish is one of the quality customer service principles around which the entire public service modernisation programme is based. The Official Languages Act 2003 secures the rights of citizens to conduct their business with public service organisations through Irish or English. My Department is committed to improving the amount and quality of information available in Irish as a result. My Department does not account separately for each element of improvements in customer service and a breakdown of figures is not readily available, but the cost is not significant to the overall costs of publishing information and other aspects of providing a quality customer service. There is no separate provision in the 2005 Estimates for the cost of implementing the provisions of the Official Languages Act 2003. It is intended that generally the Irish and English versions of reports will be part of the same publications. It is expected that my Department will be drawing up a scheme in 2005 in accordance with the Official Languages Act 2003 and a costing exercise may be undertaken as part of this process.
