Vol. 577 No. 5
74 Mr. Penrose asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the steps he is taking to ensure that Irish is recognised as an official language in view of the fact that from April 2005 the EU will have 20 official languages and it appears that Irish will not be included; if he will take steps to remedy that situation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31782/03]
77 Mr. Naughten asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the reason the Irish language has not been declared an official working language of the EU; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31789/03]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 74 and 77 together.
The Irish language has the status of a treaty language in the European Union. This derives from the fact that the treaties are in Irish and that Irish is listed as one of the languages in which the text is authentic. Each successive treaty is published in Irish as well as in the 11 other languages, with the texts in Irish being equally authentic and having equal status with those in all other languages.
Irish is not one of the official and working languages of the institutions of the Union as provided for in Article 1 of Regulation 1/1958. As I stated in replies on 2 December and again on 17 December, this situation will not change after 1 May next. The status of Irish in the EU, which is reflected in our accession treaty, was determined by a letter of 23 July 1971 from the then Minister for Foreign Affairs to the President of the European Council outlining the Government's views. The draft constitutional treaty under consideration at the Intergovernmental Conference would fully maintain this position.
The Government continues to monitor developments with a view to availing of any appropriate opportunity which may arise to enhance the status of Irish in relation to the EU. In the current negotiations on the reform of the staff regulations for EU officials, it is proposed that officials will be required to demonstrate an ability to work in three languages before their first promotion and that one of these languages can be Irish.
