Joe Conway (Independent)
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I feel that I am in a midlanders’ get-together today. It is the first time I have had the pleasure to meet face to face with the Minister of State, Deputy Troy, who I think hails from Ballinacarrigy, County Westmeath. Am I right? I am. It is not too far down the road from the village of Ardagh, County Longford, where I was born and raised, and from Colehill, where I lived for a little while. Of course, I also see Senator Flaherty here from Longford, who is another doughty character in the Seanad.

I will get down to business. Ireland is confronting a significant decline in its staffing representation in European Union institutions, a trend that poses a threat to its influence and the status of the Irish language itself at European Union level.Approximately one third of Irish officials in EU roles are expected to retire by next year, 2026, yet the pipeline for replacements is seriously deleterious to efforts to deal with this attrition rate. For every four Irish officials retiring from high-ranking Commission positions, only one has succeeded in passing the EU recruitment process. This shortage is particularly acute among Irish-language professionals. Since our language achieved full official and working status in the EU in 2022, there has been a surge in demand for Irish-language interpreters, translators and lawyer-linguists. However, our European Union institutions report a critical shortage of qualified Irish-language professionals. As the Minister of State and the Members know well, the recruitment process for EU civil service roles is rigorous and requires proficiency in at least two EU languages with a third language often necessary. For Irish-speaking roles, total fluency rather than just proficiency in both Irish and English is essential. The pool of candidates who possess perfect Irish and another EU language to a high level as well as the requisite skills, which often include legal qualifications, and who are willing to relocate to Brussels is exceedingly small. It is a lot of qualifications. We are probably talking about a figure in the low double digits, approximately 10%.

Our Government's policy compounds this problem. Irish civil servants have been denied the opportunity to take up EU roles on secondment, forcing candidates to decline positions for which they are well qualified. Moreover, the Government has not implemented strategic initiatives to upskill individuals to take up these roles such as promoting secondment from the existing ranks of the Civil Service or training Irish speakers in a third EU language. This lack of strategic foresight risks an irreversible erosion of Ireland's influence at EU level. That is particularly true in the wake of Brexit. I contend that this has already diminished Ireland's soft power in Brussels. The Government's recent failure to nominate both a male and female candidate for the role of EU Commissioner, despite the Commission's request, has further damaged the State's credibility.

As Ireland prepares to assume the EU Presidency in 2026, this diminishing presence in the EU institutions reflects poorly on the nation's commitment to and presence in the EU. After these sins of omission, as we once called them in the catechism, what of our purpose of amendment? At the stroke of a pen, the Government could go some way towards alleviating the shortfall by enabling and promoting Civil Service secondments to EU institutions and upskilling workers in EU languages. Why is the Government neglecting to do this basic work?

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Senator for highlighting our home area and the beautiful villages of Ardagh and Colehill. While he may have left those areas, I can report that they are ably represented by Councillor Mick Cahill and Senator Joe Flaherty.

I thank the Senator for raising this important matter. Ireland faces a challenge at present in maintaining its internal influence in the EU. The reasons for this include but are not exclusive to recent and upcoming retirements of Irish officials at the most senior levels within the institutions. While I thank the Senator for raising this issue, I refute the statement that the Government is doing nothing. In fact, the programme for Government commits to deliver on plans to increase the number of Irish people applying for positions in the institutions of the EU, including through a communications campaign targeted at school leavers and graduates highlighting the opportunities available and a partnership with third level providers to do the same.

In recognition of this dual challenge, a strategy to increase Irish representation within the EU institutions and agencies, A Career for EU, was launched in May 2021. Through this strategy, the Government actively promotes EU jobs and aims to increase the number of Irish people employed within EU institutions. The strategy, which is managed by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, includes a number of elements aimed at encouraging Irish citizens to apply for posts in the EU institutions.It also offers direct assistance for competitions, including dedicated training for assessment centres. The strategy aims to significantly increase the number of Irish officials in both permanent and temporary positions within the EU. This is done through increased promotion and outreach to secondary and third level students to raise awareness of EU career opportunities. A dedicated EU careers portal accessible on ireland.ie/en/eu-jobs provides information on EU jobs and the supports available to all Irish applicants.

The Minister of State with responsibility for European affairs, Deputy Thomas Byrne, who leads on the EU jobs strategy working with officials in the Department, has been proactive in driving this agenda forward. The Minister of State raises the issues regularly with senior EU officials to see what more can be done to increase the Irish uptake of positions in the EU institutions. In a recent meeting with the Commissioner with responsibility for these issues, Commissioner Serafin, the Minister of State raised the issue and discussed options for increasing the level of Irish staffing. In recent months, he has met with the director general for human resources of the European Commission and the director of the European Personnel Selection Office, EPSO. He has engaged with Irish staff working across the institutions to update them on the Government strategy and to hear from them on how Ireland can further assist them in their careers. The Minister of State will continue to champion this issue in meetings with EU counterparts.

The Government invests significantly in the support of EU representation through central funding for seconded national experts and the EU jobs campaign. We are backing our ambitions with concrete support. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade offers candidates assistance at all stages of the recruitment process, including assistance with preparing for preliminary tests and the provision of training packs for EPSO competition reasoning tests in partnership with EU training and the Irish language supports. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade also facilitates secondments under the seconded national experts, SNE, programme when vacancies for positions in the European Commission and across the various EU institutions arise. Currently, there are more than 40 officials from almost all Departments as well as a number of agencies whose placements are supported under the SNE programme. We aim to increase this to 50 in the next year or so. The Department also facilitates the annual seconded national experts return conference to discuss the work of Irish SNEs and to support them in engaging with their home Departments and to update them on current Irish Government priorities.

The national experts in professional training, NEPT, programme and the Erasmus for officials programme are short-term training schemes that provide officials with first-hand experience of working in the European Commission and other EU institutions. I will provide the Senator with the remainder of the reply.

Joe Conway (Independent)
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I am charmed and warmed by the Minister of State's outline of where they are going forward. It sounds like a to-do list,and when people are coming up with to-do lists, it usually implies that people have been asleep at the wheel.

The Irish versions of the new EU legal materials are being produced in real time. However, the EUR-Lex website, where EU law is published, has most important historical EU legislation, for example, the working time directive, and this is not available in Gaeilge. They are available in every other language, including those with far fewer speakers in the EU such as Maltese. This is invariably and solely down to the lack of translation staff at EU level. What is being done or what is being proposed to be done by the Government to obviate these failures and shortfalls? It is not good enough. It is a catalogue of being asleep at the wheel.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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I reiterate once again this Government’s commitment to increasing the number of Irish officers in EU institutions, as outlined in the programme for Government. We have maintained a strong focus on the implementation of the career for EU strategy to support Irish officials working in EU institutions. The strategy was published in 2021. It was not a to-do list that we are doing now. It was renewed in 2024 through the launch of a new EU recruitment portal for Irish applicants. The Government has dedicated significant resources to supporting Irish representation in the EU institutions, including through central funding for seconded positions and a range of training supports and information sessions for those seeking careers in the institutions. Outreach at career fairs at both secondary and third level, and public advertising for career opportunities, including on social media, have also been a focus and have been successful. I assure the Senator this outreach will continue. We are committed to ongoing engagement and building close relations with the Irish in EU institutions, including a regular programme of outreach in Brussels and events such as the annual SNE conference in Dublin which took place earlier this month. I will also take back some of the suggestions made today to my colleague, Minister of State, Deputy Byrne.