Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The Secretary General conducted an internal staff survey on how best to implement the scheme. While we had a core group of staff who were extremely proficient in writing, speaking and communicating in Irish, many staff members who were fairly good at Irish did not feel proficient enough to deal with it in everyday situations. Others identified themselves as moderately to very proficient.

The decision was to organise a series of courses for those who are very proficient and those who are less so. The courses are run by Gaeleagras and other outside providers, based on the different levels of proficiency in Irish of the staff. We have also organised in-house language training. The uptake on that has been good, with one class attended by 11 or 12 members of staff. The more advanced work is being done by Gaeleagras.

As I said to Deputy Sargent, it will take us some time to be able to build up the proficiency levels based on these courses and to have somebody in each section of the Department who is proficient in Irish. My Department, unlike others, does not have a high level of engagement with the public, but it deals with other Departments and we want to be able to do that through Irish, if necessary. It is confidently felt that over the period up to 2008, we will be able to do what Coimisinéir na Teanga has asked us to do and honour the commitments I gave in my earlier reply. A great effort is being made by the management, the management advisory committee and staff in the Department. There is no difficulty in getting people to take part in courses and build up their proficiency, but it will take some time.

See this speech in context