Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 60 and 64 together.

I wish to assure the Deputies, and the House, that my Department has and will continue to work with Departments and other public bodies to assist them in meeting their obligations under the Act in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible. I reiterate that the obligation under section 10 of the Act to publish documents simultaneously in Irish and English applies only to a limited number of key documents published by public bodies, including annual reports and accounts and documents setting out public policy proposals.

I have long advocated that documents such as these should be published by way of CDs or the Internet, rather than in hard copy. I am aware that a number of public bodies already follow this practice. The Coimisinéir Teanga specifically advocates this approach to public bodies in the guidebook on the Act published by his office circulated to all bodies in 2008. The Government adopted a similar policy last year as one of a number of measures designed to reduce costs across public bodies.

With regard to the issue of whether the level of funding spent on translating official documents into Irish would be better spent on reviving the Irish language, I believe that given the constitutional position of the Irish language and its application in the Ó Beoláin case of 2001, it would be a mistake to think there is a choice between implementing the Act - with consequent costs – and not implementing it. The Act provides a planning mechanism by which constitutional obligations can be met over time in a planned and coherent way. The alternative is an ad hoc approach, in which public bodies respond in a fragmentary and crisis management way to perhaps much more prescriptive judicial orders. Given its position as the first constitutional language, the objective of the Act is to ensure that delivery of public services by public bodies through the Irish language is seen as normal and as being required to meet minimum standards of customer service and corporate governance, rather than an optional extra or add-on. The provision of public services in Irish so that the citizen has the option of engaging in official business with State bodies through Irish, is essential to the future of the language.

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