Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

It is covered by my Department but is not by the departmental charter. It is in the domain of the Attorney General, which also comes under my area of responsibility. I replied on that issue in detail approximately two weeks ago and it is being addressed. It will take us some time to resolve that issue, though hopefully not too long into the new year. The South African company originally responsible for the matter has been contacted. It is regretted that it happened but attempts are being made to resolve it.

My Department is not being decentralised but there are no difficulties in dealing with other Departments. We have our own procedures for dealing with our clients and that is well covered in our charter.

Deputy Sargent raised on a number of occasions the issue of dealing with queries through Irish, including by e-mail. My Department tries to deal with such queries within each section. There is no problem with correspondence via e-mail but difficulties arise when people ring the office. Sections in my Department have endeavoured to each have at least one person who is adequately able to write and speak in Irish. To the best of my knowledge, some sections have a number of such people, but other sections have only one. That is the Department's policy and the management team of the Department has tried to address the matter. There can be some difficulties if the person is out from work, which can happen, but sections try to ensure adequate cover.

As the Deputy will appreciate, quite a number of sections dealing with commemorations and other issues, such as Northern Ireland, have many dealings through Irish, but some sections do not. It is policy that no matter how small the section — a number of my Department's sections are very small — it tries to ensure one person who would be——

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