Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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185. To ask the Minister for Health 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. [38626/15]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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In accordance with the Official Languages Act 2003, my Department is committed to ensuring that customers who wish to conduct their business through Irish can be facilitated to the greatest extent possible. The Department has 7 staff or almost 2 % of the total number of employees who are capable of carrying out their duties through both the Irish and English languages. All written correspondence addressed to the Department in Irish is replied to in Irish and any telephone queries are referred to one of the members of staff competent in Irish. In addition 6 members of staff have undertaken the Certificate in Professional Irish course approved by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht in the last year.

As the Department does not provide health and personal social services directly to the public, there is no demand for staff of the Department to deal with the public in minority languages.