Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta as an cheist sin a ardú. As the Deputy is aware, the Government approved the introduction of a new approach to ensure that there is a sufficient number of civil servants who are able to perform their duties through Irish. These new arrangements were put in place in the context of replacing the policy of awarding bonus marks for Irish language proficiency in Civil Service recruitment and promotion competitions which was not meeting the Government's or this House's objective of having bilingualism in the public service.

Under the new approach measures are being introduced to increase the cohort of functional bilinguals in the Civil Service in order to reflect a more competency-based approach to recruitment and, where appropriate, promotion. In future, in the context of workforce planning frameworks, Departments will be required to identify the posts or areas of work requiring functional bilinguals and to include those in their workforce action plans. Having regard to the implementation of the Gaeltacht Act 2012, Departments will be asked to pay particular attention to posts that are located in, or that are serving, Gaeltacht areas. The process will be central to ensuring that future recruitment and interdepartmental promotion competitions run by the Public Appointments Service, PAS, make sufficient provision for appointments to posts requiring functional bilinguals. In the case of departmental recruitment and promotion competitions, an assessment will be made of the requirement for functional bilinguals and, where necessary and appropriate, a sub-panel of functional bilinguals will be put in place.

The new arrangements replace the scheme of bonus marks for Irish, introduced nearly 40 years ago following the abolition of compulsory Irish for entry to the Civil Service. Under the new arrangements, where a post in a Department is identified as requiring proficiency in Irish, the intention is that it should be filled by someone who demonstrably is functionally bilingual.

As a first step, the arrangements will be piloted in the upcoming executive officer, EO, recruitment competition, which it is planned will take place shortly. It is proposed that a sub-panel of Irish language functional bilinguals comprising up to 6% of the overall EO panel size, will be created. The timing of the EO competition is under consideration in the context of an overall approach to recruitment.

My officials have written to Departments notifying them of the new arrangements. Departments have been requested to review the workforce planning frameworks previously submitted and to identify specific posts or areas of work under their remit which require functional bilingualism and to include those in a revised workforce action plan.

In developing this new, innovative and positive approach, my officials took account of the supports and incentives applied in other jurisdictions such as, for example, the Basque Autonomous Community and Canada. The model now being adopted for the Civil Service draws on lessons learned in those jurisdictions and others, as well as our national experience and has the objective of increasing the cohort of functional bilinguals in the Civil Service. It is based on good practice by reflecting a more competency-based approach and assigning responsibility to Departments in identifying posts where functional bilingual skills are required. The new model will be tested on a pilot basis, as described, and revised as necessary in the context of the experience with its implementation. I would very much welcome the input of Members of the House and committees of the House on those matters.

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