Ms Anne Marie McMahon:

Yes. On how this decision was arrived at or what the inputs were, I cannot elaborate as I was not there. On the Commissioner's appearance before this committee last May and his commitment to strengthen the Irish language, I submit that he has made extensive efforts to progress that. Since then, as outlined in the opening statement, there is a strategic Irish language group he chairs. There is a working group that I chair. That has sat seven times since its inception. We have developed our Irish language strategy and implementation plan. That was due to be launched prior to Christmas but we had to postpone it because of Covid. The plan is to launch it during the two-week Seachtain na Gaeilge. That is a very significant development.

There are many actions in the plan that aim to increase the awareness of Irish language in the organisation as well as support and underpin our statutory obligations in terms of the Irish language. It also recognises that the Irish language is very much a community language. It contains three different pillars: recruitment and workforce planning, which is about our staffing and how we make sure the Gaeltacht areas are sufficiently staffed with people who are sufficiently trained and meet the standard of fluency required; Irish language development and awareness raising, which takes on many forms, including the development of online courses, one of which has already been done, in addition to supporting people if they want to go to external service providers to upskill etc.; and the fáinne, which comprises three strands, including everything from the cúpla focal all the way to the gold fáinne. These are initiatives in the strategy and they illustrate the organisation and the Commissioner's desire, understanding of the obligations, and commitment in progressing the Irish language.

In addition, there is the Irish language promotion and engagement. In so far as the Irish language is a community language, we want it to be a community language within An Garda Síochána as well. That is one of the reasons the cúpla focal fáinne came into being. There was an understanding and acceptance that many of us had quite a lot of vocabulary but perhaps did not have the confidence to engage and use it and improve. That commitment is from recruit gardaí all the way to the Garda Commissioner and Garda staff throughout the organisation. There is no doubting the commitment of the organisation and the Commissioner in meeting our obligations in terms of the Irish language.