Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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76. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the percentage of staff in his Department capable of dealing with the public in the Irish language; if there are training programmes in place for staff to improve their level of working Irish; the provision there is for other minority languages; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38627/15]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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My Department’s Second Irish Language Scheme, which was prepared in accordance with the Official Languages Act, 2003 and which covers the period September 2015 to September 2018, reiterates the Department’s commitment to assess, on an ongoing basis, the level of demand for services through Irish to ensure that this demand can be met in a planned, coherent and accessible way having regard to training policies, promotion and recruitment, as appropriate. A survey of staff, which was conducted in 2012 to ascertain the level of demand experienced by my Department for services through Irish, confirmed that the number of communications received in Irish in recent years has been very low. This survey also showed that 22% of staff who participated, identified themselves as capable of participating in everyday conversation, with 34% indicating they could understand the general meaning of letters and e mails, and that 17% could write fairly straightforward letters and e mails in Irish.

In accordance with our obligations under the Official Languages Act, 2003, my Department is committed to communicating with clients who wish to transact their business with the Department through the Irish language. Arrangements are in place whereby 13 staff have volunteered to participate in appropriate training courses to enhance their Irish language skills. This training is being provided so that we have a cohort of staff who can assist business units to respond to clients who wish to communicate through the medium of Irish. These 13 staff equate to 1.5% of the Department’s workforce.

In addition, I would add that the Workplace Relations Commission provides publications on various Workplace Relations issues in Irish, Arabic, Chinese, Czech, French, Indian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak and Spanish. The Employment Appeal Tribunal also provides some publications in Irish and provides interpreters at hearings where parties indicate that they require such facilities. Most languages can be facilitated, provided sufficient notice is furnished to the Employment Appeals Tribunal secretariat, in advance of the date of hearings. Amongst the languages provided are Polish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Tagalog and Urdu. The Tribunal also provides Irish language interpreters and sign language interpreters where required. There is currently no provision for training in any other minority languages in my Department.