Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
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Question 70: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the cost to his Department of fulfilling its obligations under the Official Languages Act 2003 for each year since its inception; the budgeted cost of these obligations for 2006; the distribution of these costs between different sections of his Department; the percentage of this cost that relates to staff costs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18196/06]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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My Department has not yet been notified to prepare a Statutory Scheme under Section 11 of the Official Languages Act, 2003. However, since 2003 my Department has complied with all the appropriate sections of the Act that have commenced, namely, Section 9.2 relating to correspondence etc, received in the Department in the Irish language and Section 10 relating to publishing key policy documents simultaneously in Irish and English. It is not possible to provide a breakdown of the costs to the Department of fulfilling its obligations under the Official Languages Act since its inception in 2003, because accurate figures are not available for the years 2003 and 2004. However, I can inform the Deputy that the figure for 2005 was €49,153 and that expenditure to date in 2006 amounts to €1,276. The budgeted costs of these obligations on the Department for 2006 is €50,000. My Department has made provision in the 2006 Estimates for an additional €125,000 to enable it to fulfil any further obligations on the Department this year under the Official Languages Act.

It is not possible, in the time available, for the Department to provide information on how the above costs could be distributed between different sections of the Department or to provide information on the percentage of the above costs which relate to staff costs.