Mr. Alan Breen:

It is important to point out that the communications unit is part of the wider transformation and policy directorate. We have actively taken steps to bring the directorate and the wider agency into line with the Act and have put plans in place to continue developing, for example, different publications that we produce and initiatives to build on that work that we have done. To that extent we have taken a number of steps and perhaps I should point out a number of those to the committee.

I mentioned where we have begun with our social media approach and we propose to continue with that. Any media queries we receive in Irish we respond to in Irish. We arrange that these and the responses to them are translated. We arrange similarly for the translation of emails and our responses to them. This includes a number of other publications like our annual reports and business plans, the publication of some of which is in train at the moment. We also have the Irish language prominent across all of our branding, to include email signatures in the agency letterheads and presentation templates, as we would be presenting regularly to other agencies and organisations throughout the country. We also have a number documents that are available in Irish. These include all of our Children First documents and guidance documents under the Children First legislation and documents for mandatory reporters etc., all of which have been produced bilingually.

I am very conscious of our obligations to comply with the Act. I was recruited a year and a half ago and my first goal was to build a communications strategy. Within that strategy, a priority was to ensure compliance with Irish language legislation. We are coming from behind and I fully acknowledge that, but we are also very conscious and committed to our obligation to ensure that we are in compliance with the Act.