Ms Deirdre Shanley:

I am joined by my principal officer colleagues from the Department, Joan McMahon from corporate affairs, Tadhg O'Leary from human resources and Eoin Brown, who is the divisional manager for Galway. Given the time elapsed since the Department's response to the original questionnaire from the committee in January 2017, I have provided the committee with updated answers i nGaeilge agus in English. The answers give an overview of the services provided by the Department through Irish.

I would like to draw the committee's attention to the main changes made to the Department's response since the original questionnaire. Work is under way to develop a new Irish language scheme. It is hoped to bring this to the Minister of State at the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht for approval before the end of the summer. The current language scheme covers the period 2015 to 2018. More details have been provided in our updated responses to the questionnaire on the monitoring of the implementation of the Department's commitments under the language scheme. The supports and services provided by the Department have also been updated.

There has been a welcome increase in the number of staff willing to provide services through Irish from 152 in January 2017 to 191 at the end of May 2018. In addition, two bilingual clerical officer posts have been filled by the Public Appointments Service and a request has been made for a further two executive officers and a higher executive officer from bilingual panels. The increase in the number of staff members willing to provide a service through Irish is welcome. They are supported by improved training and development supports provided by the Department's staff development unit. Professional Irish language training for all civil servants is now available exclusively via the online learning and development shared service. In addition, considerable advances have recently been made in the provision of digital services by the Department. These new services are also provided bilingually.

The opening statement I provided to the committee in advance also expanded on the information provided in the response to the questionnaire. The Department's provision of services through Irish is guided, but not restricted, by our obligations under the Official Languages Act 2003 and the Department's own language scheme. I am grateful to the committee for its understanding that my own level of Irish in not sufficient to speak as Gaeilge this afternoon. I welcome the opportunity provided by the committee to discuss the Department's response to the questionnaire that was submitted. My colleagues and I would be more than happy to answer any questions the committee has on these matters.