Under the Public Sector Equality and Human Rights Duty, all public service public bodies have a responsibility to promote equality, prevent discrimination and protect the human rights of their employees, customers and service users in accordance with Section 42 of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Act 2014. All public service organisations also have a responsibility to deliver quality services. The guidelines on implementing Customer Action Plans and Customer Charters under the Quality Customer Service (QCS) initiative developed by my Department clearly set out the standards of service that customers can expect. The guidelines assist organisations to adhere to the 12 principles of the QCS initiative. The guiding principles include equality, diversity, and (where feasible) customer choice in service delivery. Government Departments and Public Service Bodies provide interpretation services to meet the needs of their customers. For example, the Department of Social Protection provides such services through their Intreo Centres and the National Office for Social Inclusion in the HSE provides a range of multilingual resources and translated information. The HSE has also published good practice guidelines for staff in the provision of interpretation services. Agencies in the Justice sector, such as the Courts Service, An Garda Síochána, the International Protection Office and the Prison Service, also provide interpretation services.
In addition, the Migrant Integration Strategy which was extended to 2022 provided for, inter alia, actions in relation to information to migrants in language-appropriate formats and signage in public offices indicating where interpretation is available. The Programme for Government has committed to developing a successor to that strategy and I understand that planning is underway in that regard in the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.
