Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 12 December 2023
49. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Justice if she is aware of the shortage of Irish-speaking gardaí working in County Donegal and in Gaeltacht regions; if any plans have been put in place to address this; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [54263/23]
View answerBa mhaith liom ceist na ngardaí agus an Ghaeilge a ardú leis an Aire Stáit. Táimid ag iarraidh a chinntiú go bhfuil Gaeilge líofa ag gardaí atá lonnaithe i stáisiúin Gaeltachta. I wish to raise the issue of Irish-speaking gardaí working in Gaeltacht regions. Will the Minister provide an assessment of how much progress has been made regarding the Garda's Irish-language strategy, published in 2022? Is her Department aware that there is a shortage of Irish-speaking gardaí currently working in County Donegal, which has the largest Gaeltacht area in the State?
I am committed to supporting An Garda Síochána in achieving their objectives through recruitment, Irish language development, awareness, promotion and engagement. The Garda Commissioner is responsible for the management and administration of An Garda Síochána, including the allocation of resources, including Garda members, to a given division, district or station. An Garda Síochána issued a directive in 2018 to ensure that only members with the appropriate Irish-language skills would transfer to Gaeltacht stations, with a view to increasing the number of bilingual personnel in these stations. The Garda authorities are also committed to ensuring that a policing service is provided through the Irish-language medium in divisions with a Gaeltacht station as far as is possible in the overall context of providing a safe and effective policing service nationwide. I am advised that as of 6 December, 1,498 gardaí declared competency in Irish, of whom 90 were attached to the Donegal division. I am further advised that there are a number of initiatives in place to facilitate improvements in spoken Irish in the Donegal division, including attendance by gardaí at Gaeltacht courses, as recently as October 2023.
An Garda Síochána remains committed to the Irish language. A new Irish language strategy for 2022 to 2025 was published in March 2022. The strategy aims to strengthen Irish-language services within An Garda Síochána and to ensure compliance with statutory language obligations. It includes a long-term goal of ensuring all Gaeltacht Garda stations are fully bilingual. As outlined in the strategy, An Garda Síochána will achieve its objectives through recruitment, Irish-language development, awareness, promotion and engagement. Studies in the Irish language will remain part of the policing BA delivered to all trainee gardaí in the Garda college, Templemore. As the Deputy will be aware, there is now a dedicated Irish-language recruitment stream as part of each Garda recruitment campaign. I am pleased to say that, to date, 24 candidates from the 2022 competition's Irish stream have been successful at interview stage.
I welcome that the Minister of State has put new information on the record. I submitted a parliamentary question to the Minister for Justice, which gave me the breakdown of every Garda station in the Gaeltacht regions, including County Donegal. It comprised more than 300 gardaí in County Donegal and suggested there were only nine with Gaelic as a native language or with proficiency. I subsequently questioned that because I know it is not true. I know many of the gardaí in my community who speak fluent Irish and many of them grew up there. When I submitted the question again, I was told that information was accurate but it was not. I ask that the record of the Dáil be corrected. Some media outlets were looking to cover the story but I said it was not accurate information. There are issues concerning Garda stations in County Donegal and the Irish language. County Donegal is vast and rural. In the directive from 2018 and the Garda third Irish-language strategy document from 2022, there was a commitment to the Gaeltacht regions. There are gardaí who are proficient in the Irish language, want to move to County Donegal and are outside of the Gaeltacht areas, yet there are vacancies in stations in the Gaeltacht. They have to be given tús áite or priority in this situation.
As stated, the transfer and stationing of An Garda Síochána is an operational matter for the Commissioner, but I will bring the Deputy's concerns to him. On recruitment, An Garda Síochána has brought in important measures to comply with its language obligations. These include the introduction of an Irish language stream in the recruitment process, whereby 10% of all spaces in each competition are reserved for fluent Irish speakers and the introduction of an allocation process for Gaeltacht stations, which included a revised system of assessment as recommended by An Coimisinéir Teanga. There is also an Irish language proficiency panel, which includes Irish speaking members who wish to serve in Gaeltacht areas. This provides opportunities for all personnel to improve their proficiency and the introduction of an Irish language interpretation service available to all personnel to allow for the facilitation of services through Irish if personnel with Irish are unavailable to assist.
Given Fine Gael's disastrous handling of policing and justice and the reduction in the number of gardaí we have also seen in County Donegal, whether you look at the figures from 2002, 2012 or the past three years the numbers for our county have gone down. On top of that more than one in ten is out sick. These are either people who have been assaulted or injured in the course of their duty, or are suffering from sickness themselves. There is a serious issue there. We then have the situation in Gaeltacht regions. People are entitled to be able to communicate and carry out their business with the gardaí in Irish. An Garda Síochána has recognised this with an aim for all Gaeltacht stations to be bilingual and all vacant posts are deemed Irish essential. As I said, that is not the scenario we currently have, in particular when there are vacancies, people are out sick, moved, transferred or promoted internally. Can this issue be raised with the Garda Commissioner? There are people looking to be transferred to Gaeltacht regions who have proficiency in the Irish language to make sure we fill the obligations of the State and the Constitution, which is that people in Gaeltacht regions should be able to conduct their business with An Garda Síochána in their native language.
As I said, it is an operational matter for the Commissioner, but I will bring the Deputy's concerns to the attention of the Commissioner. The new Irish Language Strategy 2022-2025 establishes a pathway and puts in strong mechanisms to ensure we have members of An Garda Síochána and a situation where the Irish language gets the recognition it deserves within An Garda Síochána. We all acknowledge we need more members of An Garda Síochána. That is why we have a recruitment campaign. Next year we expect to recruit an additional 1,000 members, so we will have more members available for the Commissioner to distribute across the country.
