Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
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Question 245: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the percentage of the staff of his Department able to provide services through Irish; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14181/06]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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Some 45 departmental staff members are sufficiently fluent in the Irish language to be able to provide services through Irish. This represents about 3% of our staffing complement, leaving aside staff locally recruited by Irish missions.

The Department is currently in the process of preparing a scheme under the Official Languages Act 2003, which will outline proposals to ensure better availability and a higher standard of services through Irish for our customers. The Department published a notice in the national press in March of this year inviting submissions from interested parties concerning the preparation of the Department's scheme. All submissions received will be considered in the course of preparing the scheme, which is due to be submitted to the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs before the end of July next.

The Department has already taken action to improve the level of service it provides through Irish. An Irish language sub-committee of the Department's partnership committee, the Fochoiste Ghaeilge, has been established to consider the implications for the Department of the Official Languages Act and to develop proposals to meet the challenges posed by the Act concerning the delivery of services in Irish to the public.

The Department also facilitates the attendance by staff at Irish language classes run by both Gaeleagras and Conradh na Gaeilge, and pays for officers to attend week-long immersion courses in the Gaeltacht that are organised each summer by Gaeleagras.

Arrangements are also in train to provide lunchtime in-house Irish classes for departmental officers who wish to improve their Irish language skills. It is expected that these initiatives will, over time, lead to an increased level and quality of service provision through Irish for our customers.

The Department's passport offices in Dublin and Cork, and our consular section in Dublin, as well as our press section and a number of our larger missions, including those in London and Washington and the permanent representation to the EU in Brussels, have officers assigned to them who can provide services through Irish.