Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There is all-party agreement on the 20-year strategy. We all accept the necessity for it. We will, of course, have regard to any comments made by the coimisinéir in terms of the policy the Minister, Deputy Howlin, has outlined.

The key issue for people who transact their business through Gaeilge is the capacity to speak to people who have the language. The point the Minister made in his remarks last week, in setting out the new policy, is that the previous policy in terms of bonus points for Irish was not achieving that objective. We have, therefore, decided to try something different, albeit by way of a pilot scheme. The objective is to assess, in a more effective way, the requirements within the public sector for people to speak the language and to ensure we have those people in place. There are two basic requirements here. The first is that we have people who are skilled in the language and can deal with the public in a competent way. Second, those staff must also be competent to work within Departments to fulfil the objectives set out in the policy in terms of documentation and other requirements. The previous policy did not work in any shape or form and it is right and proper that we should seek to reform it.