Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if there is a step-by-step plan in place to ensure that the current derogation on the Irish language as a working language of the European Union is abolished, particularly in view of Ireland holding the Presidency of the European Parliament at the beginning of 2013, in view of statements from Martin Schultz (details supplied), President of the European Parliament, that the decision to remove the aforementioned derogation is entirely at his discretion; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1662/13]

Dinny McGinley (Donegal South West, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, Irish became an official and working language of the European Union on 1 January 2007. This development has had the welcome effect of greatly increasing the availability and visibility of Irish in the EU institutions. Notwithstanding the status of the language in the EU, there is, however, a derogation in place for practical reasons which states that the EU institutions are not bound by the obligation to translate all legal texts. This stems from the difficulties in recruiting a sufficient number of qualified personnel to meet requirements in the EU institutions.

The original derogation with regard to the use of Irish in the EU institutions applied for 5 years from 1 January 2007 to 31 December 2011. This was extended for another 5 years from 1 January 2012 to 31 December 2016. Under the terms of the derogation, only EU laws made under the co-decision procedure must be translated into Irish. The Lisbon Treaty, which came into effect on 1 December 2009, resulted in the co-decision procedure becoming the norm, rather than the exception, for EU law-making. This has resulted in a significant increase in the proportion of EU laws that must be translated into Irish.

A decision on whether to extend the derogation for another 5 years must be made by December 2015 at the latest. This matter will be considered by the Government in due course, having regard to the various implications that arise from it. In that context, it is worth noting that the 20-Year Strategy for the Irish Language 2010-2030 states:

"The Government will work to create the circumstances in which a sufficient number of qualified graduates are in place to meet EU requirement needs so that this derogation can be ended during the lifetime of this Strategy."