Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 18 December 2018

Joint Standing Committee on the Irish Language, the Gaeltacht and the Islands

Seirbhísí trí Ghaeilge: Tusla

4:00 pm

Mr. Alan Breen:

Currently, we have a team of seven and we are building to 14. I have recruited one senior communications officer who is proficient in Irish. Since we have taken him on, we have started doing some more communication through Irish. To give one example, in our public awareness week for child and family support, we had activity across our digital side in Twitter and Facebook, we sent out press releases in Irish also, and we offered availability of spokespersons through Irish as well to talk about that week. To answer the Chair's question, currently we have one out of seven who is proficient in Irish and I am recruiting to a staff of 14. I am not certain at this point, because we have some competitions to hold yet, who among the remainder to be recruited will have that level of proficiency.