Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 26 February 2019

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

Seirbhísí trí Ghaeilge (Atógáil): Feidhmeannacht na Seirbhíse Sláinte

Mr. Paul Connors:

With the Chair's Committee of Public Accounts hat on, I am sure she will know that our systems are deplorable to say the least. It would be difficult to gather that type of information, particularly historical information. Information regarding a person's competence in speaking Irish is not logged on the system. We should look for that information from new entrants coming into the system, but it would be difficult, though not impossible, to extract that information from all of our different systems around the country. I am also not sure whether that information exists with regard to current staff. We should prospectively be looking at identifying our capacity to deliver services in Irish to answer all of the questions that have been asked here today. We do not know now.