Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Question 458: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs his plans to make information on the way to obtain a PPS number available in multiple languages. [35169/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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My Department is very conscious of the increasing number of non-English speakers requiring access to services. The list of forms available in other languages is constantly reviewed and, when the need arises to translate a form into another language, this is done.

In addition to English and Irish the main Guide to Social Welfare Services (SW4) is available on the website in Polish, Chinese, Arabic, Russian, French and Spanish. This is a very extensive guide which includes details on the way to obtain a PPS number. The Personal Public Service (PPS) number application form itself is available in 23 languages.

This allows applicants from all EU member states, as well as those from China and Russia to complete an application form in their native language. Nationals from these countries comprised just over 85% of the total of applications received in 2005. Many of the applicants from other countries would have fluency in, or a reasonable command of, one of the 23 languages involved.