Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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Question 246: To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the current status of Gaeleagras; the staffing and budget given to Gaeleagras for each of the past four years; the reason it has cut back its training activities including the summer Gaeltacht programme; his strategic vision for increasing the capacity of the civil service to conduct business through the Irish language and the way he sees Gaeleagras fitting into this strategy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30752/12]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The strategic approach to how Gaeleagras can best achieve the delivery of its mandate is under active deliberation by my Department. The need to look closely at the way in which the services of Gaeleagras are delivered has arisen in the context of staff retirements as well as the need to examine more cost efficient ways of realising the objectives of this important Irish language service. These developments are also pertinent to the non availability of Irish language training programmes at present.

The civil service is fully committed to building the capacity of its staff to conduct their business through the medium of the Irish language and the deliberations currently underway in this connection are aimed at ensuring that objective.

The allocated budget for Gaeleagras for the period requested is as follows:

2009 - €450,000 2010 - €300,000 2011 - €120,000 2012 - €45,000