John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Question 556: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the amount which has been spent by her Department in bringing into effect the provisions of the Official Languages Act 2003. [30535/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Given our statutory obligations under the 1998 Education Act, the Department of Education and Science is very conscious of its Irish-speaking customer base. Documents such as circulars, application forms and reports have always been available in both languages. For this reason, it is not possible to identify precisely what translation costs have incurred because of the Official Languages Act, as these costs would have arisen anyway. To date in 2005, the Department of Education and Science has spent €70,292.33 on Irish translation services.

Under section 13 of the Official Languages Act, the Department of Education and Science has a legal obligation to ensure that an adequate number of its staff are competent in the Irish language. An intensive language training course is being piloted for administrative staff. The cost of this training is estimated at €40,000. This pilot will be carefully evaluated to ensure that it delivers on its objectives of increasing the number of staff who are able to provide a service through Irish.