Mr. David Cagney:

I absolutely empathise, as most people would, with those of us who could only engage with colleagues over Zoom, Teams and so on for a long time. One of the issues we will be teasing out as we roll out blended working is how to manage that really important interface that maintains the culture of organisations and that encourages collaboration and the innovation that is an output of collaborative activity. It very much enhances the role of the people manager. All of this has been recognised as presenting a real challenge but it can be addressed through training and support. I am pretty confident that those issues around new inductees and so on can be resolved pretty effectively over the course of the roll-out of blended working. I hope I have understood the Cathaoirleach's question correctly.

With regard to where we are likely to be with blended working, while the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform will not be specifying what blended working should look like in each office, with the exception of the key principles that will apply across the Civil Service and public service, we will be encouraging Departments to make decisions that make sense with regard to their operational requirements. From the conversation here today, it is very clear that, if people working in Gaeltacht areas have an interest in working in the Civil Service, there should be no serious objection to them working in a blended working environment in those Gaeltacht areas. There are potential medium to long-term career issues involved which have not been worked through at this particular point in time and arrangements also cannot be made that are personal to the holder of the post. Leaving those caveats aside, blended working is potentially an important lever - I will not say game-changer - in encouraging fluent Irish speakers to work in the Civil Service.

In terms of the Cathaoirleach's point on various initiatives, I do not want to pre-empt the recommendations to emerge from the committee being set up under the legislation or the initiatives which may emerge over the course of the ten-year plan, Civil Service Renewal 2030, as to how to support and encourage people to speak Irish through various initiatives. As I said earlier, there is no one fix here. We are going to have to hit this challenge with everything we have in our armoury. The suggestions the Cathaoirleach has made will certainly have to be considered. However, I am not in a position to make any further comment in that regard. These decisions are wider than the remit of my Department.

With regard to the requirement for translators, while it is not within my area specifically, the Department is conscious of the challenges in that area. Among other things, these relate to starting pay.

I would be reasonably confident that a sensible approach will emerge from my Department where there are clear business reasons associated with the challenges of attracting translators. I am not in a position to say anything more about it because it is outside of my remit but I would be reasonably confident that practical resolutions to those challenges can be found.