Mr. Colin Bray:

I thank the Chairman. As chief executive of Ordnance Survey Ireland, OSI, I thank the Chairman and the members of the committee for the invitation to attend today’s committee meeting to address the subject of the legal provision that placenames are used only in Irish in the Gaeltacht.

To give a brief introduction to Ordnance Survey Ireland, OSI is the national mapping agency operating under the Ordnance Survey Ireland Act 2001 and is under the aegis of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. OSI is headquartered in the Phoenix Park and has six regional offices in Cork, Ennis, Kilkenny, Longford, Tuam and Sligo. OSI has a staff of approximately 230 people and is in the process of being merged with the Property Registration Authority and the Valuation Office to form a new Civil Service body to be known as tailte Éireann.

OSI publishes placenames in compliance with the Official Languages Act 2003. The OSI Act 2001 states that the general function of OSI is to provide a national mapping service in the State, and in this regard to operate in the public interest by creating and maintaining the definitive national mapping and related geographic record of the State.

Section 4 (2) (h) of the OSI Act 2001, as amended by the Official Language Act 2003, specifically relates to Irish language placenames and states the function: “to depict placenames and ancient features in the national mapping and related records and databases in the Irish language or in the English and Irish languages.”

Placenames are defined in the Official Languages Act 2003 as: “[including] the name of any province, county, city, town, village, barony, parish or townland, or of any territorial feature (whether natural or artificial), district, region or place, as shown in the maps of Ordnance Survey Ireland;”.

The Irish version of placenames are determined by the placenames branch and are given the legal status by means of a placenames order. Where a placenames order is in force, a public body is required to use the Irish version of the placenames specified in the order.

There are 13 published placename orders and eight draft placenames orders. A placenames database of Ireland is made available through the website: logainm.ie. Logainm.ieis a research project in Fiontar in Scoil na Gaeilge, which is a multidisciplinary school in Dublin City University.

As part of OSI’s obligation to maintain Irish and English placenames in the national mapping and related records and databases, OSI works closely with Fiontar and with Scoil na Gaeilge and the placenames branch to maintain an OSI national placenames gazetteer which is published openly. This means that it is available to everybody to use without restriction or charge and it contains only Irish language in Gaeltacht areas. This OSI national placenames gazetteer contains statutory administrative, statistical boundary names that are covered under the placenames order, and also contains administrative and statistical boundaries not currently published as placenames orders but which have historical translations. Our national placenames gazetteer contains over 48,000 Irish translations.

As a technology-driven organisation, OSI has the systems and processes in place to allow for the full automation in the publications of its products and services ensuring placenames compliance with the Official Languages Act 2003. OSI has automated map label placement software to ensure the correct positioning, size, and priority of placenames by geographic area so that in Gaeltacht and Gaeltacht areas, only Irish placenames are shown on mapping products and services. Examples of OSI map products have been provided in my full opening statement.

In addition to the national placenames gazetteer, OSI maintains and publishes Irish translations for any other real world features such as roads, rivers, lakes and buildings which are used within many different map products and services that OSI produces. OSI currently publishes a number of Irish language cartographic products such as our place map, land registry maps and our national-level, Irish-only digital mapping web services, MapGenie Eire.

In summary, OSI has the relationships and the data management systems in place to continue to meet its placenames obligations and is committed to doing so. I thank the Chairman.