‘Urgent need' to implement provisions of Official Languages Act

Irish Times

9 hours ago

The Irish language community's 'lack of confidence' in the availability of public services in Irish demonstrates the 'urgent need' to implement provisions of the Official Languages Act,
An Coimisinéir Teanga
has said.
Speaking on the publication of his office's annual report for 2024, Séamas Ó Concheanainn said the absence of a mandatory obligation for Government departments and local authorities to provide fundamental services such as passport, public services card or driving licence applications in Irish is 'a significant concern'.
The provision of such services for the Irish speaking community is being 'significantly' hindered by the absence of a formal obligation, Mr Ó Concheanainn said.
Another factor cited by the Coimisinéir Teanga is a shortage of qualified staff within public bodies who are proficient in Irish.
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The report cites a 'clear and urgent need' for the full implementation of the new language standards system and the 20 per cent provision of recruits with Irish, elements which were described by the Coimisinéir Teanga as 'the two cornerstones' of the State's first national plan for the provision of Irish language services published last October.
Mr Ó Concheanainn, whose role is to monitor compliance by the State and its agencies with language legislation, said a formal investigation carried out by his office into the Department of Foreign Affairs found it had 'insufficient staff' available to provide a telephone service in Irish to members of the public who wished to make a passport application through Irish.
The office of the Coimisinéir Teanga received a total of 594 complaints from the public in 2024. While this represents a 6.5 per cent drop on the number received in 2023, the report says the nature of the complaints reflects 'extensive gaps' in current public services in Irish.
These include a lack of online services in Irish, a lack of public service infrastructure in Gaeltacht areas, the absence of official forms in Irish, and the failure of State bodies to use the correct Irish form of names and surnames.
While welcoming last October's publication of the Government's six-year National Plan for Irish Language Public Services as 'commendable', Mr Ó Concheanainn warned 'the significant improvement' that is required will not be achieved 'without a statutory obligation' on public bodies to provide 'the most basic of public services' such as passport and driving licence applications, in Irish.
Mr Ó Concheanainn also said 'strategic workforce planning' that incorporates staff with proficiency in Irish will be necessary on a national basis to meet the State's target of 20 per cent of public service recruits being proficient in Irish by 2030.
Highlighting the 'positive impact' that implementation of language legislation has had on strengthening language rights, Mr Ó Concheanainn said the prominence of Irish language across diverse media has 'significantly increased'.
Section 10A of the Languages Act requires that at least 20 per cent of advertising placed by all public bodies in any given year is in Irish and that at least 5 per cent of their annual advertising budget is spent on Irish language media.
Figures released last year by An Coimisinéir Teanga show that in 2023, public bodies placed advertising to the value of €3.8m on Irish-language media. Irish language advertising to the value of €10.4m was also placed on English-language media as a result of this provision.
Publication of the 2024 report was welcomed by Minister for the Gaeltacht Dara Calleary.
He said it demonstrates the 'significant progress' that has been made to date.
While the report 'identifies some gaps in the provision of Irish language public services', Mr Calleary said he was encouraged that much of the work under way by his department will directly address most of these.