Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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123. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if he will insert a new provision in the Official Languages Act to ensure that at least 10% of employees in the Civil Service can communicate with the public through Irish; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27729/14]

Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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124. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if he will insert a new provision in the Official Languages Act whereby services are made available in Irish for Gaeltacht communities before the end of 2016; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27730/14]

Dinny McGinley (Donegal South West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 123 and 124 together.

As I stated in my reply to Parliamentary Question No. 405 on 17 June 2014, following a review of the Official Languages Act 2003, my Department recently published the Heads of the Official Languages (Amendment) Bill 2014. Head 6 of the proposed Bill provides for an amendment to section 13 of the Act. This involves including a new subsection in section 13(2) stating that the posts within public bodies that require an Irish language competency be specified in language schemes. This amendment reflects the Government decision of 30 October 2013 to replace the practice of awarding bonus marks for Irish language proficiency in civil service recruitment and promotion competitions with a new competency-based system, the objective of which is to increase the cohort of functional bilinguals in the civil service. In addition, it should be noted that the workforce plans of Government Departments and Offices will in future specify the posts/areas of work which require staff that can function in both official languages. Having regard to the implementation of the Gaeltacht Act 2012, Departments will be asked to pay particular attention to posts that are located in, or that are serving, Gaeltacht areas.

I understand from the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform that it had been intended to pilot the new arrangements in the upcoming Executive Officer (EO) recruitment competition. However, as priority is now being given to a Clerical Officer (CO) competition and the EO competition will not take place until later in the year, the new arrangements are being piloted in the CO competition which is currently being undertaken by the Public Appointments Service. It is proposed that a sub-panel of Irish language functional bilinguals, comprising up to 6% of the overall CO panel size, will be created. Successful candidates appointed from this panel must be able to provide a full range of services in Irish. I should also point out that, in accordance with section 13(d) of the Official Languages Act 2003, public bodies, when preparing their language schemes, are required to ensure that the particular Irish language requirements associated with the provision of services in Gaeltacht areas are met.