Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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Question 314: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism the funding allocated by his Department for the implementation of the 2009 to 2012 scheme for the implementation of the Official Languages Act 2003 in 2009; the level of funding which will be made available over the course of the duration of the scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16220/09]

Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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Question 315: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism the new services which will be introduced or the existing services which will be enhanced by his Department's 2009 to 2012 scheme for the implementation of the Official Languages Act 2003; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16221/09]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 314 and 315 together.

On 20 April last, I launched the Department's new scheme 2009-2012 pursuant to the Official Languages Act 2003. This scheme, the second successive one of its kind, commits the Department to the provision of a range of services in both Irish and English. In particular, the Department's new scheme continues the delivery of commitments to Irish language service provision made in its first scheme, for 2005-2008, and seeks to enhance the level of such provision over the period 2009-2012. These commitments include the maintenance of a bilingual corporate website; the provision in bilingual format of a range of corporate and policy documents, including guidelines, information leaflets and application forms; and the bilingual availability of services on an inter-personal basis in certain circumstances. Full details of the services to be made available bilingually are contained in the published scheme, available on the Department's website at www.dast.gov.ie.

Because the implementation of the commitments in the scheme simply constitutes one component of mainstream service delivery to the Department's customers, in this case, to those customers who wish to deal with the Department through the medium of the Irish language, the Department does not maintain a separate funding allocation for Irish language service provision. Rather, the cost of such service provision is treated as part of the normal expenditure of the Department, although records are maintained of actual costs incurred.

It is not possible to estimate in advance these costs over the lifetime of the scheme, as they are dependent, in part, on the number of publications produced by the Department and the demand for Irish language services from customers.