Mr. Paul Reid:

Good afternoon, Chairperson and members. My apologies in advance as I will relay my opening statement in English because my Irish is not strong enough. I am joined today by my colleagues: Tony Canavan, CEO, Saolta Hospital Group; Cuimín Mac Aodha Bhuí, head of the Irish-language service in the HSE; Mark Brennock, national director of communications; and Dr. Margaret Fitzgerald, specialist in public health, HSE national social inclusion office.

The HSE attended this committee in November 2021 and gave an update on our work to provide information and services in Irish and our implementation of our Irish-language strategy. The HSE has some ground to make up in this area, as the committee is aware. I regret the opportunities missed to adopt and implement a scheme under the previous Act. We are renewing our commitment to work to meet our duties under the updated legislation from now on. We want to use the good work done during the Covid-19 period as a platform for that improved service to Irish speakers.

In December, the committee asked that I attend to discuss videos produced by the HSE in 12 languages of migrant communities to encourage uptake of the Covid-19 vaccine. The committee also asked to discuss generally the languages in which the HSE provides information to the public. Let me first address the context of the videos for our migrant communities. In the course of the pandemic, very clear at-risk groups emerged along with evidence of groups less likely to take up the vaccines.

We noted especially low vaccine uptake rates of 26% for nationals of EU 14-27 countries working in sector A, which includes agriculture, forestry and fishing.

In response, the HSE’s social inclusion team worked on measures to ensure that Covid-19 advice and vaccine promotion messages were adapted for those communities representing lower uptake rate or higher levels of ICU admissions. These programmes included creating videos in the languages spoken by at-risk communities who are unlikely to be served by traditional channels or information in English or Irish.

For this particular purpose, neither English- nor Irish-language versions of these videos were required. There is an English-language version on the website to act as a reference, but this was not promoted or used as part of the campaign. We are very proud of our partnership with Translate Ireland, which has worked with us to reach people that are not well served by our traditional communications campaigns.

Let me address the provision of services and information in the Irish language, focusing on our Covid-19 communications over the last two years. Our mainstream communications campaign during the pandemic used a wide range of mass media channels to reach the public. Both the English and Irish languages were included in our daily news and media interviews with HSE leaders; social media messages from the HSE; HSE Live, our Covid-19 phone information service; hse.ie, the main source of advice and information; advertising campaigns on TV, radio, newspapers, posters and cinemas; Google search advertising and digital advertising on websites and HSE booklets delivered to all households.

The Saolta hospital group has also carried out extensive Irish-language communications during Covid-19, including social media and news media communications and a dedicated section on its website, along with information sheets and walk-through videos for vaccination centres in Gaeltacht areas.

Members will already be aware that many of the above channels have seen a much greater proportion of Irish-language messaging, since the pandemic began, than our previous norms. We have seen enhanced levels of Irish-language activity on social media and our Covid-19 television and radio adverts were produced in both languages and aired on television on TG4.

The HSE website, hse.ie, has been the main source of reliable information for the public and with the support of the HSE Irish-language service, 108 pages of Covid content are provided in Irish. HSE Live, our phone support service, has Irish-speaking operatives to allow registration for the Covid-19 vaccine through Irish.

Substantial HSE information booklets on Covid-19 were produced bilingually and delivered to all households in Ireland in 2020 and again in 2021. Our Covid-19 vaccine information booklets have been produced in English and in Irish from the outset of the programme, with updates to the text and translations being carried out each week since December 2020. These booklets are all available on the HSE website and printed copies are also made available.

We have taken many opportunities to provide an unprecedented level of advertising and patient information through Irish during the pandemic and will extend this to other topics in line with the new legislation. We also acknowledge, as discussed in our November attendance here, that some opportunities to advance our vision for the Irish language as detailed in our strategy have been missed during this period.

We have addressed the availability of our online applications connected to Covid-19, such as the vaccination portal and the systems used to book antigen tests, and to book a vaccine or Covid-19 test in Irish. I am happy to say that all these systems are now available through Irish on hse.ie.

Our plans to improve and extend our public information in Irish include providing a high-quality user experience and up-to-date content on the HSE’s website. We have begun the process of developing a semi-automated process with a high-quality translation service to ensure accuracy. The initial scope of this project is to enable the HSE website to be multilingual and to provide Covid-19 and Covid-19 vaccination information on hse.iein Irish in the first place. We aim to have this in place by the end of April.

Looking forward, we will ensure we meet the upcoming legislative requirements placed upon us by the Official Languages (Amendment) Act 2021. This will include appointing a new senior manager to lead the process. The Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media has told us it will be in touch with us with regard to the commencement of the new legislation and will run information sessions for public bodies. We look forward to participating fully and to further improving the services we provide in Irish.