Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim fíorbhuíochas leis an gcoiste as an deis seo sonraí a thabhair maidir le tuarascáil an Choimisinéara Teanga ar chur chun feidhme scéim teanga na Roinne i dtaca le logainmneacha Gaeltachta. Tá brón orm nach bhfuil mo chuid Ghaeilge líofa go leor le leanúint ar aghaidh i nGaeilge. Le cead an Chathaoirligh, leanfaidh mé ar aghaidh trí Bhéarla.

I thank the Chairman and the committee for this opportunity to present details regarding An Coimisinéir Teanga's report on the implementation of the Department's language scheme with regard to Gaeltacht placenames. I am very disappointed representatives of GeoDirectory are not present at this meeting to answer any technical questions that may arise. However, I will endeavour to get answers to any such questions the committee may ask today.

In 2015, the investigative report recommended seven actions to be undertaken by the Department. The September 2021 implementation report presented to the Oireachtas acknowledges the Department has made a genuine effort to implement all seven of the recommendations. However, An Coimisinéir Teanga concluded my Department has breached its statutory language requirements regarding its own language scheme by failing to ensure official placenames of Gaeltacht areas appear in Irish only in the Eircode system. Despite this, I am satisfied the Department meets the requirements of its language scheme and, furthermore, that all seven recommendations of An Coimisinéir Teanga's 2015 investigative report were actioned and reviewed by the Department's management board.

My Department has put in place the necessary arrangements to ensure official placenames of Gaeltacht areas are used as the default for official purposes, in compliance with our official language scheme, the Official Languages Act 2003, the Place-Names (Irish Forms) Act 1973 and placename orders that have been enacted. This extends to Capita's operation of the Eircode system in that the quarterly dissemination of new Eircode postcodes to Gaeltacht areas is carried out using only the Irish postal addresses provided by An Post and issued to Capita by An Post GeoDirectory. This also extends to the Eircode finder website tool where responses will default to the Irish version of the address when searching by address or Eircode for Gaeltacht placenames. In addition, where searching for Gaeltacht placenames is required, the Eircode finder website only utilises the latest maps published by Ordnance Survey Ireland, OSI, which shows the Irish version of Gaeltacht placenames through the OSI GeoHive web mapping service. Finally, both the Eircode website and Eircode finder website are available in Irish, and customer queries to the Capita support desk received in Irish by email, post and telephone channels are responded to in Irish.

These measures notwithstanding, I acknowledge it is unfortunate that private companies use addresses and people's names in English rather than their original language, Irish. However, I will clarify that the Eircode database does not, and never has, contained people's names.

With regard to complaints that individuals have received letters with their addresses translated into English, it is important to state the Eircode system is underpinned by the most current An Post postal addresses, which contain Gaeltacht placenames in both Irish and English. This is to ensure that the Eircode system, which is postal infrastructure in non-physical form, aligns with An Post's postal network as the universal postal service provider. Notwithstanding that, Eircode does not change existing addresses but can simply be added to the address normally used for the property. Individuals and private companies are free to use different forms of address. Indeed, private companies hold their own various forms of addresses in their own databases along with multiple forms of addresses for the same property. To resolve this issue of multiple forms of addresses, companies simply append Eircode postcodes to their own existing databases or addresses, whether they are in English, Irish or both. The use of addressing databases by private companies is an operational matter and a commercial decision for the companies themselves. My Department has no role in this.

The provision of all postal addresses, including Irish-language addresses, in the Eircode system is solely derived from the GeoDirectory database. This is the customer-facing product that combines address data provided by An Post and location co-ordinates provided by Ordnance Survey Ireland. This database is provided under licence by An Post GeoDirectory, APG, a subsidiary company of An Post and OSI, to Capita, which operates the Eircode system.

An Post has advised my Department that it is not possible to remove English postal addresses from its mail sorting system for Gaeltacht areas as this could impact the quality of service metrics in regard to mail delivery set by the postal regulator, the Commission for Communications Regulation, ComReg. ComReg has set quality of service standards requiring An Post to deliver 94% of single-piece priority mail posted in the State for delivery in the State on the next working day and to deliver 99.5% of such mail within three working days. An Post advised that removing English postal addresses would give rise to serious technical difficulties in the sorting and delivery of mail. This is because An Post's sorting equipment uses both English and Irish variations of addresses. These are used to match the address of the incoming letter. If no match is found, the letter will have to be manually sorted or returned to the sender. Furthermore, An Post stated that removing English variations of addresses in Gaeltacht areas would impact negatively on the quality monitoring that is in place for the delivery of mail. It is therefore not within the remit of Capita to change unilaterally the form of postal address in the Eircode system as An Post has responsibility for the assignment of postal addresses in the State.

Aside from that issue, private individuals have the option of using the Irish version of a postal address or another of the most commonly used versions in the Gaeltacht. People can simply append Eircode postcodes to their preferred address.

In the design phase of the Eircode system, Capita, supported by my Department, engaged with Foras na Gaeilge and Conradh na Gaeilge to ensure compliance with all statutory obligations regarding the Irish language. Since the issue of discrepancies in Irish addresses between the GeoDirectory and logainm.iedatabases was raised with my Department in 2015, my officials have engaged with An Post, An Post GeoDirectory, Ordnance Survey Ireland, An Coimisiún Logainmneacha and Capita. This has resulted in Gaeltacht placenames that are the subject of discrepancies in the GeoDirectory databases being updated regularly. An Coimisiún Logainmneacha continues to supply An Post GeoDirectory with a file of Irish-language placenames that have been changed or updated. APG has informed my officials that the GeoDirectory database includes official placenames data as supplied by An Coimisiún Logainmneacha and that it updates this regularly with information provided by an coimisiún.

The GeoDirectory database is provided to Capita on a quarterly basis for the assignment and dissemination of Eircodes. An Coimisiún Logainmneacha is also working alongside Ordnance Survey Ireland to update its online geohive maps portal with the latest Gaeltacht placenames. This is used in the free Eircode finder.

My Department will continue to engage with an Coimisinéir Teanga; An Post and the An Post GeoDirectory; Ordnance Survey Ireland; An Coimisiún Logainmneacha; and Capita on the use of official Irish placenames in Gaeltacht areas. However, I am confident that my Department has fulfilled its obligations under the Official Languages (Amendment) Act 2021 and taken all possible steps to ensure the official placenames of Gaeltacht areas are used. I am happy to answer any further questions members may have.