Ms Patricia Coleman:

At the end of the day, an appeal can only be on a point of law and it has to be made within a very short period of time. One must also have regard to the high cost of High Court appeals. Our approach would have been that this is an issue appropriate to engagement with An Coimisinéir Teanga, the Public Appointments Service and the Commission for Public Service Appointments in terms of possibly bringing the issue forward. He has a different interpretation of when Irish language marks should be applied in terms of the internal promotion competition process. His interpretation is not in line with the policy that has been adopted by the Department for a very consistent period of years and in line with the approach that we feel is appropriate.

Following on from what my colleague from the Department of Social Protection has said, it is critical for us to ensure people who are promoted to positions in the Civil Service have the full range of competencies for the job. It is always open in relation to any particular post, if there is a requirement for Irish language skills for that particular job, that that would be assessed as part of the promotion process, as distinct from the Irish bonus marks at the end of the day.