Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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94. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if Irish is no longer a requirement for the appointment of a person to the position of county librarian; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36475/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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In 2015 a working group was set up to revise the qualifications for professional and non-professional public library grades. The working group consisted of members of the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, County Librarians (also members of the Library Association of Ireland), and senior human resources staff from various local authorities as well as representatives from the Libraries Development Unit (formerly An Comhairle Leabharleanna) in the LGMA.

The output from this group was the production of updated draft qualifications, for all library grades, which have since been declared by the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government.

The revised qualifications reflect the changes in educational requirements within the profession over the last 20 years. For more senior staff within the library profession, the revised qualifications place more emphasis on managerial skills in common with analogous professional grades. The qualifications also reflect the career structure and path from Grades 3 to 9, again in line with analogous professional grades.

The revised qualifications also removed the requirement from previous qualifications whereby a successful candidate had to be proficient in Irish. The recommendation from the working group was that this created an unnecessary barrier to entry for those unable to speak Irish or those who never had the opportunity to learn the language. This is a view that is shared by my Department.