John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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45. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will provide a breakdown of his Department's expenditure on translating and printing Irish language publications, documents, advertisements, notices and bilingual signage in each of the past three years. [11050/14]

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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My Department is responsible for two Votes – Vote 28: Foreign Affairs and Trade; and Vote 27: International Cooperation.

Expenditure by my Department on translating and printing Irish language publications, documents and advertisements in each of the past three years is set out in the table below. This expenditure includes the translation and printing of passport application forms and the translation of official publications and documents into Irish. The recent upgrading of Departmental websites and associated online services included once-off translation of a large volume of content on the website from English to Irish. The vast bulk of these costs were incurred in 2013 when website and online translation costs came to €76,706. In addition, 100,000 passport application forms in the Irish language, for distribution in Ireland and abroad, were also printed in 2013 at a cost of €30,134.

Advertising undertaken by my Department relates mainly to notification of changes to passport and consular fees, public office opening hours, and occasional employment opportunities, grants, and other matters, including Irish Aid activities, which require communication to a national audience. The Department places certain public notices in Iris Oifiguil, telephone directories and the press, in compliance with its obligations under the National Languages Act. I regret it is not possible to ascribe a value to the Irish language element in such advertising. This is advertising which would have to be undertaken in any case and it is not considered that the Irish language element adds significantly to the overall costs.

In the time available it was not possible to differentiate the additional costs, if any, arising from bilingual signage.