Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 27 November 2012
451. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht his views on whether the Irish language should be protected in the public sector reform currently underway, in the Government's work in general, and if the he should avail of any other opportunity to enhance the status of Irish in their work; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52942/12]
View answerAt the outset, I should point out that responsibility for public sector reform in general rests with my colleague, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform.
The 20-Year Strategy for the Irish Language 2010-2030 recognises the need for the development and strengthening of language awareness and language training programmes so that a higher proportion of public service staff are truly functional in Irish and can deliver services in Irish to customers who seek them. In this context, the Strategy proposes that the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Public Appointments Service should devise appropriate arrangements over time to increase the cohort of public servants who are functional bilinguals, having regard to the present constraints on public sector recruitment.
The Strategy also provides for these arrangements to be supported by the development, within the existing overall national qualifications framework, of an independent, standards-based accreditation system for Irish language competency within the public service and proposes that a National Diploma in Bilingualism and Language Practice should be designed and offered, so as to support the delivery of quality services to the public in both Irish and English.
It should be noted also that the Official Languages Act 2003 has adopted the language scheme as a core instrument for the provision of bilingual services by the public sector and the Strategy provides for future language schemes to specify the posts within organisations that have an Irish language competency requirement.
Clearly, the implementation of initiatives such as these would significantly advance the objective of enhancing the delivery of public services in Irish in a satisfactory manner. My Department is in discussion with relevant stakeholders, including the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, with a view to progressing this objective, while taking account of the significant resource restraints at this time. As a first step, it has been agreed in principle with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform that my Department will assume responsibility for advancing arrangements that will facilitate the training and proficiency assessment of staff in the use of the Irish language in the civil service and certain areas of the public service. It is expected that arrangements to this end will be put in place from early next year.
