Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 21 July 2021
Joint Committee on the Irish Language, the Gaeltacht and the Irish Speaking Community
Seirbhísí Poiblí Dátheangacha na gComhlachtaí Poiblí agus Líon na Seirbhíseach Dátheangach: Plé
Mr. David Cagney:
No, I do not agree with that. As I understand it, the practice in the past of awarding in or around 10% worth of extra marks for successful applicants who could speak as Gaeilge was felt to be quite discredited in that it did not recognise competency in the wider sense and perhaps gave a bias to people who could speak Irish but who may not necessarily have been able to do the job. The sense now is that it would be important that people would actually be able to do the job. While I would not necessarily agree with the Senator that everybody should be proficient in Irish, it would be highly desirable that they would be, which is part of the aspiration in the Bill.
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