Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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263. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the estimated number and percentage of civil servants who are competent to carry out their duties through the medium of Irish and English in his Department; his views on whether this number is adequate; his plans to increase this number and percentage; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2632/14]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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My Department has over 50 members of staff on a panel of officials who are available to deal with queries in Irish from members of the public. This number has been more than adequate to date to meet the demand for such services - despite its broad range of functional areas. Recent work in the context of my Department developing a workforce planning framework has confirmed that that number is adequate.

The Department also has a full-time Irish translator, who is principally engaged in the translation of Rules of Court to Irish.

Since 2006, with the commencement of its inaugural Irish Language Scheme, my Department has run 23 in-house Irish courses, both written and oral, tailored for members of staff. These courses were run, concurrently in some cases, by Gaeleagras, Gaelchultúr and the IPA, in the Department’s offices in both Dublin and Killarney. In addition, my Department also supports members of staff who wish to do Irish courses outside of the Department.