John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Question 213: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will provide details of the total expenditure by his Department on providing services through the Irish language in each of the past five years. [31626/12]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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The only costs incurred by my Department in relation to providing services through the Irish language were in respect of the translation of documents and the provision of Irish language training to staff.

It is a requirement of the Official Languages Act that documents setting out public policy proposals, annual reports, statements of strategy, and matters considered to be of major public importance, are communicated by Government Departments in both Irish and English.

The table sets out the translation costs and the Irish language training costs incurred by my Department for the past five years. The translation expenditure includes the cost of translating documents from English to Irish and from Irish to English. The Deputy should note that these figures also include some translations into languages other than Irish or English. The cost element in respect of translations to languages other than Irish or English is not significant.

Cost of Providing Services through Irish