Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 346: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs when the requirements of the Language Act will become operational; the requirements that each Department and agency will have to comply with; the resources in place to have contemporaneous publications of Government papers provided; the extra translators recruited for this purpose; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23688/06]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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Firstly, I wish to advise the Deputy that, in accordance with the provisions of the legislation, all provisions of the Official Languages Act 2003 will come into operation automatically on the 14 July 2006. Consequently, the following provisions of the Act which have yet to be commenced will come into effect on that date:

∙Section 7, which relates to the publication of Acts of the Oireachtas simultaneously in both Irish and English.

∙Section 8, which relates to the right of a person to be heard and to use the Irish language in court proceedings.

∙Section 9(3), which relates to communications by public bodies with the public in writing or by electronic mail for the purpose of providing information.

As the Deputy is aware, the Act seeks to provide a framework and mechanism with a view to ensuring that the State's constitutional obligations with respect to providing public services through Irish are met in a coherent way with progress being achieved in the context of existing resources over time. The Act provides for this to be achieved in three ways:

(i) Through directly applicable provisions of the Act which are applicable to all public bodies, including the provisions outlined above and also, the duty of public bodies under section 9(2), to reply to correspondence — in writing or by electronic mail — in the language in which that correspondence was written.

(ii) Through the agreement of language schemes with individual public bodies that provide for significant improvement in the level of public services available through Irish over time subject to the level of demand; and

(ii) Through Regulations to be made by me as Minister in accordance with the terms of the Act.

To date, I have agreed language schemes with 27 public bodies and have requested a further 70 public bodies to prepare such language schemes.

In relation to the issue of contemporaneous publications of Government papers I assume that the Deputy is referring to the obligations placed on public bodies under section 10 of the Act. Section 10 provides for the simultaneously publication in both official languages of a what is in fact a very limited number of key documents such as annual reports, annual financial statements/ accounts and documents setting out public policy proposals (examples of this last category would include Green Papers and White Papers published by Government Departments).

These are all key documents by which public bodies account back to the general public, to their specific customers and to us as members of the Oireachtas in relation to how they have in the previous year or propose to in future discharge their public functions.

It is the case that many Government Departments and other public bodies do not have translation capacity in-house and that external expertise has to be bought in. As the Deputy will be aware, I have requested Foras na Gaeilge to develop an accreditation system for Irish language translators. This will be the first such accreditation system to be made available for Irish language translators. As part of the system, it is intended that a panel of accredited translators will be established, and I understand the panel will be available to the public and private sectors shortly.