Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 3 June 2004
5 Mr. O’Shea asked the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs the progress made to date in his Department on the implementation of the provisions of the Official Languages Act 2003; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16978/04]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs indicated previously in reply to questions in this House on the Official Languages Act 2003, my Department is engaged in ongoing work regarding implementation of the Act on which considerable progress has been made. In particular I have commenced Part 5, which relates to placenames, with effect from 30 October 2003. Seven placename orders have been made and a further order on Gaeltacht placenames is in draft form and will be published as a draft to allow my Department to shortly undertake public consultations. I obtained Government approval for an action plan on the phased implementation of the Act, which was published before Christmas; made a commencement order on 19 January to give force to most of the Act's provisions as from that date and with effect from 1 May 2004 in the case of section 10, which specifies a limited number of key documents to be published simultaneously in both official languages; and made regulations to prescribe the largescale definitive maps of the State produced by Ordnance Survey Ireland for the purposes of Part 5 of the Act. The effect of these regulations will be to ensure that only the official, Irish language, placename of Gaeltacht areas will be used on such maps as they are next revised from 1 January 2005 onwards. I have also published a bilingual booklet, Act na dTeangacha Oifigiúla 2003: Osradharc, which gives an overview of the main provisions of the Act as well as answers to a number of the most common questions asked about it and made provision of €500,000 in the Estimates for my Department for 2004 to establish Oifig Choimisinéir na dTeangacha Oifigiúla a bhunú. As the Deputy is aware, Seán Ó Cuirreáin was appointed as Coimisinéir Teanga by the President with effect from 23 February 2004.
Additional information not given on the floor of the House.
My Department is continuing to provide briefing sessions for public bodies on request to further inform them of the implications of the Act and to discuss its specific implications for them; has written to each of the approximately 650 public bodies covered by the Act on two occasions to provide them with information about it and developments in its implementation; and has established an interdepartmental working group to advise it on the drawing-up of statutory guidelines under paragraph 12 of the Act. Work on the guidelines is at an advanced stage and I expect to be in a position to publish and circulate them in draft form to all public bodies within a month for comment and observations, so that work can commence on schemes by the first round of public bodies in September.
My Department has also circulated draft heads of regulations under section 9(1) of the Act regarding the use of the Irish language or, the Irish and English languages, on oral announcements, stationery, signage and on advertisements to all Departments; has held bilateral meetings with a number of Departments-public bodies to discuss specific implications and issues that arise for them; and has established a working group to make recommendations on provision of Irish translation services to meet the State's obligations under section 7 of the Act regarding simultaneous publication of Acts of the Oireachtas in the Irish and English languages. The work of the group has been completed and my Department is exploring the feasibility of a number of possible ways forward and is also keeping the list of public bodies under review to ensure that any new bodies are included by regulation for the purposes of the Act.
As regards the scheme, which bodies, including Departments, will have to submit for approval before they are considered to be operating within the terms of the Act? It was my understanding that a sample would emanate from the Minister's Department. Has that happened? If so, when will it be available to other Departments? Other Departments will only proceed with their plans having had sight of his Department's plans.
Has research been conducted regarding the number of people required by various Departments to undertake work in the Irish language? If so, does it indicate a sufficiency of people in the various Departments and State agencies to implement the provisions of the Act? I recently raised the issue of a newspaper report arising from a meeting of the Association of Chief Executives of State agencies. Have chief executives made known to the Minister or his Department their concerns in the interim?
The answer to the Deputy's final question is, "No". I replied in detail to a reasonable letter which I received from a commercial semi-State body. The letter related to its concern regarding implementation of the Act, given it is a commercial body as opposed to a private company. The Deputy will be aware we made specific provision in that regard when discussing the legislation in this House. I replied in detail to questions on the matter. Nobody has voiced general concerns regarding implementation of the Act. Most chief executives accept I am merely carrying out the will of the Oireachtas.
Considerable progress has been made by Departments in relation to the drawing up of a sample scheme. I hope to be in a position to publish it in the near future. The Deputy will note from my reply that my Department has made incredible progress in that regard. Work is also ongoing regarding recognition by the European Union of Irish as an official language. A relatively small number of staff at my Department are dealing with that issue.
My Department has established an interdepartmental working group to advise us on the drawing up of statutory guidelines under paragraph 12 of the Act. Work on the guidelines is at an advanced stage and I expect to be in a position to publish and circulate them in draft form to all public bodies within a month for comment and observations so that work on the scheme by the first round of public bodies can commence in September. We are making progress on all fronts. There is an enormous amount of work involved but I am satisfied that considerable progress is being made. In that regard, the commissioner is already in place and operating in the context of those parts of the Act currently in operation.
The Minister's reply outlined some developments that are to be welcomed. However, we are all concerned about whether there are sufficient fluent Irish speakers to provide the service within Departments and State agencies when schemes are agreed. What is the position on officials in Departments who have the requisite fluency in the Irish language but who do not want to become involved at that level?
The Deputy has touched upon a problem that we foresaw when we began drafting the Bill. It is an issue over which I received some criticism from Irish language bodies. The Deputy might remember our debating it in the House. I recognised from the beginning that one may work in a certain Department but may not want to work through the Irish language or be connected with work in that regard. Such people might be specialists in all sorts of areas. The Act stipulates that each plan be based initially on the current resources in each Department or body. If these resources are very limited, the first thing one must do is recognise that. As the Deputy knows, there is continuous recruitment in the public service. Therefore, I expect bodies to accept the current level of resources — if it is nil, it is nil — and then state how they intend to address this in their plans through the use of outside translation services, for example, and by way of a recruitment policy that would build incrementally on existing resources, taking into account the total possible pool of relevant people. In this context, young people who attend gaelscoileanna and who do courses through Irish at third level will suddenly find that new vistas are opening up because people will require their services, both in general terms and specifically because they can work bilingually within the State.
