Ms Patricia Coleman:

Regarding the commissioner's ruling, we attempted to meet the commissioner along with my colleagues in the PAS and the CPSA to discuss this issue. There is a key role for the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in applying and rolling out the policy on Irish language proficiency. At the time he declined to engage with us at that point.

In regard to improving the capacity within the Civil Service in terms of doing business through Irish, we are very supportive of that and we are very supportive of the role of An Coimisinéir Teanga. The advent of the 2003 legislation and the requirement for Departments to have schemes have had an influence in this regard in terms of Departments defining what services they will be providing in both languages and what publications will be produced. Looking back over our figures, in 2002 there was roughly a 50-50 split of Departments applying the Irish language proficiency requirement in internal competitions, by 2006 that had increased to about two thirds and, currently, my information is that the vast majority of Departments - up to perhaps 80% - are applying Irish language proficiency testing in internal competitions.

Irish language proficiency is only one element in trying to improve skills across the system; training and upskilling are key elements as well.