Mr. Denis O'Sullivan:

I would expect to discharge a co-ordination function across the Department, centring on a number of areas, one of which is our compliance with the existing language scheme. Dr. Lynch has referenced a number of significant elements of that scheme that we have been working on.

Colleagues in other parts of the Department, such as in the area of early years, have their own dedicated team and have native speakers so they will manage the Department's requirements in that area from within their team but I keep a watching eye on what they do. In addition, we will take back any recommendations that we can put in place that emerge from this discussion.

I expect to be reporting to the management board biannually, as part of our business planning process, which I co-ordinate for the Department so I expect that we will be having a formal conversation in January and mid-year on our compliance with our obligations. It is a co-ordination function which is just one small part of the responsibilities that I have, but I am in a position to designate at least one member of our team who is fluent in Irish to do some of the spade work on this for me.

The structures that I have outlined should be sufficient to keep an appropriate eye and watch on our obligations in terms of the findings, the content of our scheme, the review of our scheme in 2017 by the Language Commissioner and anything else that might emerge today or subsequently.