Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity)
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277. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the programmes in place to provide beginner, intermediate and advanced Irish language training for staff in the civil and public service in view of the commitment in the Programme for Government to increase the use of the Irish language in the civil and public service; if beginner level classes are available to all civil servants at all grades; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24753/20]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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OneLearning was established in 2017 and is the Civil Service Learning and Development Centre staffed by Civil Servants and based in the Dept. of Public Expenditure and Reform. OneLearning are responsible for all training that is common across the Civil Service to ensure oversight, value for money and evidence based prioritisation of learning solutions.

OneLearning in partnership with Learning and Development Business Partners from all Civil Service Bodies continue providing training centrally that meets the common business objectives and evolving skills needs of the Civil Service.

Ahead of the establishment of OneLearning, a Learning and Development Project Team led a consultation with relevant learning and development units in Civil Service Organisations which identified a requirement for Irish Language training at intermediate and advanced levels. There are currently four levels of Irish language courses available to Civil Servants via OneLearning (Levels 3/4/ 5/6, Certificate on the National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ) awarded by Gaelchultúr. These courses have been available to all Civil Servants since 2018 with the goal to continue to develop participants spoken and written abilities by improving their vocabulary and confidence to communicate and provide a service through Irish as required.

In line with the commitment in the Programme for Government, and the development of OneLearning’s next generation of course offerings in 2021, a consultation will take place with the Civil Service learning and development community to determine if beginner Irish courses are required for the Civil Service.

Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity)
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278. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the number and percentage of civil servants that are from Traveller, Black Irish and non-Irish citizen backgrounds; his plans to increase diversity in the civil service; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24754/20]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Civil Service employers do not currently request ethnic background information from civil servants on assignment and such data is, therefore, not available at present.

The Civil Service is strongly committed to equality of opportunity for all in terms of its recruitment and employment practices. Our Commitment is demonstrated and documented with key actions in People Strategy for the Civil Service 2017-2020 and Our Public Service 2020, both of which are to be renewed from 2021.

There are many excellent examples across the Civil Service, and broader Public Service, where positive action has been taken to promote and increase the recruitment of staff from all backgrounds at all levels. As the Deputy will be aware, the Public Appointments Services (PAS), which is an agency under the aegis of my Department, substantially coordinates recruitment to Civil Service posts. PAS is committed to ensuring that there is a concerted focus on attracting a range of talented people from all backgrounds to Civil and Public Service roles. PAS has a Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Committee in place with both employer representatives and external experts in diversity and inclusion and work closely with officials in my Department.

In the Civil Service, in line with Action 18 in the People Strategy for the Civil Service 2017-2020, my department has established a working group to review and revise the Civil Service policy related to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (ED&I) which applies to all Civil Service employers, most of which are at different stages on their ED&I journey.

Employee demographic data is recognised as being critical to both baselining, evaluating and reporting progress in further embedding ED&I initiatives across the Civil Service. An action of the Working Group is to explore how aggregate ED&I data might be captured to a common data standard by all Civil Service bodies, adopting best practice while being particularly mindful of data protection and other statutory obligations. It is expected that Equality, Diversity and Inclusion will continue to be a core component of future Civil Service Renewal and People Strategies that are currently being developed for implementation from 2021, ensuring that we continue to build a Civil Service that is reflective of the modern Ireland that we serve.