Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 323: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the amount of his Department's budgetary allocation for 2004; the amount of this allocation which was returned to the Department of Finance at year's end; the vote head from which such returned allocations were derived; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23976/05]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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The Department of Foreign Affairs has responsibility for two Votes, Vote 28 on foreign affairs and Vote 29 on international co-operation. The 2004 allocation for Vote 28 was €163,240,000. The Department did not return any of this allocation to the Department of Finance at year's end. Under the terms of the Administrative Budget Agreement 2002-2004, the Department of Finance approved a carry forward of savings of €6,519,000 from the 2004 administrative budget subheads to the Department's 2005 budgetary allocation for Vote 28. The 2004 budgetary allocation for Vote 29 was €400,030,000. Outturn for the period amounted to €397,541,000 resulting in an underspend of €2,489,000. Under the terms of the Administrative Budget Agreement 2002-2004, an amount of €789,000 was carried forward to 2005. The net amount surrendered to the Exchequer was €1,700,000 broken down as follows.

Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
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Question 324: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the amount his Department has spent to date in 2005 on the implementation of the provisions of the Official Languages Act 2003; his estimate of the amount which his Department will spend on the implementation of the Official Languages Act 2003 for the full year in 2005; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24010/05]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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It was already my Department's policy, prior to the coming into effect of the Official Languages Act 2003, to publish most classes of documentation intended for public dissemination in both Irish and English. A training programme was also in place to assist staff in developing their Irish language skills. This was and is part of a wider policy aimed at developing the Department's capability to accommodate those customers who would prefer to conduct their business with the Department through Irish. As a consequence, there has been no expenditure to date in 2005 that can be attributed solely to implementing the provisions of the Act.

The only expenditure likely to arise in this regard during 2005 relates to the publication by the Department of a notice under section 13 of the Act. This requirement will arise when the Department is formally requested by the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs to prepare a draft scheme specifying the services that the Department will provide through Irish or English only and those that will be provided through both languages. The notice will invite submissions from the public and a draft scheme will then be prepared and submitted for approval to the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. The cost of publishing the notice is estimated at €12,000 to €15,000. It is unlikely that the scheme itself will fall to be published this year as the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs has not yet formally requested the Department to prepare it and as the Act provides a period of up to six months for its preparation.