Ms Deirdre Shanley:

I will respond first to the development of our new language scheme and what we have learned from our existing scheme. In the context of the development of the new scheme, we undertook a consultation process to try to ascertain how we could try and improve our services through Irish and we invited submissions on that scheme. We advertised both on our own website and on tuairisc.ieand we requested submissions from interested parties in terms of our Irish service provision. We received 18 submissions, 14 of which were from members of staff, one from Conradh na Gaeilge and three from private individuals. All of those submissions are being considered in the development our new scheme.

In terms of our services, we have already made a wide range of commitments on what we provide in our application forms, our leaflets, our signage and our oral announcements. We are looking to see what the gaps are and where any gaps have been identified. We also looked at any issues that had arisen during the course of our existing language scheme or any complaints that we might have received about our services through Irish to better inform us on the development of our new scheme.

These are all things that we are considering and trying to learn from to improve what we are doing in the context of the development of our new scheme.

Regarding our new offices that are available in the Gaeltacht areas, we have offices-----