Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Question 834: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs if he will provide a list of the Acts or sections or other provisions of Acts coming wholly or partly under the auspices of his Department, or for the commencement of which his Department is wholly or partly responsible, which are not yet in force and which require the future making of a commencement order; if, in each case, it is intended to make such an order; if so, when; the reason for the failure to make such an order to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24903/05]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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Three sections of my Department's Official Languages Act 2003, which became law on 14 July 2003, remain to be commenced. The following sections of the Official Languages Act 2003 remain to be commenced: section 7 which provides for the publication of Acts of the Oireachtas in each of the official languages simultaneously; section 8 which provides that a person has a right to be heard and to use the Irish language in court proceedings; and section 9(3) which provides that any communication in writing or by electronic mail by a public body with the general public or a class of the general public for the purpose of furnishing information must be either in the Irish language only or in the Irish and English languages.

A date for the commencement of these provisions has not yet been fixed. However, it should be noted that these sections of the Act will, by virtue of section 1 of the Act, automatically come into force on 14 July 2006 if they have not been commenced by order before that date.