Dinny McGinley (Donegal South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta as an cheist seo a ardú. I will begin by explaining the background to the derogation. Irish was recognised as an official and working language of the European Union on 1 January 2007. The original derogation with regard to the use of Irish in EU institutions applied for five years from 1 January 2007 to 31 December 2011. This was extended for another five years from 1 January 2012 to 31 December 2016. As a result of the derogation, the EU institutions are not obliged to translate all legal texts into Irish. Under its terms, only those EU laws made under the co-decision procedure must be translated into Irish. However, the coming into effect of the Lisbon treaty on 1 December 2009, had the effect of making the co-decision procedure the norm, rather than the exception, for EU law-making. This has resulted in a significant increase in the proportion of EU laws that must be translated into Irish.

The Council Regulation 1257/2010, on the derogation, requires a decision to be made by December 2015 at the latest as to whether to extend the derogation for another five years. The EU institutions would welcome a definitive decision by the Government before the end of 2014, in order to facilitate orderly planning of any recruitment requirements that might arise. It is worth noting in this context, that the derogation itself makes reference to the difficulties experienced to date by the EU institutions in recruiting sufficient numbers of qualified personnel for positions as Irish language translators, legal and linguistic experts, interpreters and assistants.

As well as ensuring the availability of people with the requisite skills to take up positions in the EU institutions, the generation of terminology for use in the translation of official documents is also a key factor to be considered. With this in mind, two significant initiatives have been funded by my Department for the past number of years, the inter active terminology for Europe initiative, IATE, and the advanced Irish language skills initiative.

Funding is provided to Fiontar in Dublin City University to translate Irish language terms for the EU terminology database called IATE. The amount provided by my Department to Fiontar from 2007 to 2012 was in excess of €1.85 million. In addition, funding has been approved for the continuation of this initiative in 2013 and 2014. As a result of this investment, in excess of 50,000 Irish language terms have been provided for the terminology database, which consists of 9 million terms in the 23 official languages of the EU. Of the 23 official languages, Irish is now the 14th biggest language in this EU terminology database.

The advanced Irish language skills initiative was established in 2006 as a response to an identified need to increase the numbers of graduates with skills in specific areas in the context of the Official Languages Act 2003 and with Irish becoming an official language of the EU. The provision of qualified persons with Irish language skills to meet these recruitment needs is being achieved through this initiative. The Department provides funding for a range of specialised third-level Irish language courses in Ireland in areas such as translation, interpretation, IT and law. The fund is administered by my Department in conjunction with the Higher Education Authority. In excess of €11 million has been spent on this initiative to date.

As regards employment in the EU institutions in general, the Government recognises the strategic importance to Ireland's interest of employment for Irish citizens in EU posts, including posts directly related to the Irish-language. Earlier this year, the Government approved new arrangements to facilitate Departments to send officials to work in the EU as seconded national experts. These new arrangements are an indication of how important it is for Irish officials to get an opportunity to work in policy areas within the EU institutions. As those working in language related posts, in particular those working in lawyer-linguist posts, frequently transfer to EU policy areas, the importance of filling these posts cannot be overestimated in terms of the Government's overall strategy of increasing the Irish presence in the EU institutions.

The 20-year strategy for the Irish language 2010-30, contains the following commitment: "The Government will work to create the circumstances in which a sufficient number of qualified graduates are in place to meet EU requirement needs so that this derogation can be ended during the lifetime of this Strategy". For some time my Department and relevant stakeholders, including the EU institutions, have been actively engaged in discussions regarding the issue of the derogation in order to formulate specific proposals on the optimal approach for the future. It is my intention to present these proposals to Government at the earliest opportunity in 2014.

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