Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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415. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht her plans to increase the number of Irish speakers across the Civil Service. [11769/17]

Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy is aware, in 2014 the Government approved the introduction of a new approach to support Irish language proficiency in the civil service.  Arrangements were put in place by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, in the context of replacing the policy of awarding bonus marks for Irish language proficiency in civil service recruitment and promotion competitions which was not meeting the Government's objectives for Irish language proficiency in the civil service. Under the current approach measures are in place to increase the cohort of functional bilinguals in the civil service in order to reflect a more competency-based approach to recruitment and, where appropriate, promotion competitions. In the context of Workforce Planning frameworks, Departments are requested to identify the posts/areas of work requiring functional bilinguals and to include these in their workforce action plans. 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. This process will be central to ensuring that future recruitment and interdepartmental promotion competitions run by the Public Appointments Service make sufficient provision for appointments to posts requiring functional bilinguals. In the case of Departmental recruitment and promotion competitions, an assessment will be made of the requirement for functional bilinguals and, where necessary and appropriate, a sub-panel of functional bilinguals will be put in place.

The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform’s Implementation Plan for the 20-Year Strategy for the Irish Language 2010-2030 includes measures aimed at building capacity in the provision of Irish language services in the civil service.  In this context, Foras na Gaeilge currently has a contract in place with Gaelchultúr Teo. for the provision of Irish language training to the public service. From 2011 to date, I understand that in the region of 1,200 public servants from over 80 state bodies have attended courses run by Gaelchultúr Teo. In addition to this, over 400 government employees from more than 20 public service bodies have undertaken Gaelchultúr’s Certificate in Professional Irish.

In October 2014, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform announced an end to the Moratorium on recruitment in the public service, to be replaced with new delegated management arrangements to be phased in during 2015 and 2016. Open recruitment competitions have now recommenced and my Department is monitoring early outcomes regarding the bilingual element.

Given that it is the responsibility of each Department to identify and address its Irish language needs, I recently asked my officials to open a discussion with their counterparts in other Departments and in the main public bodies, including the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, in order to examine their requirements for functioning bilinguals. These discussions are currently underway.