Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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369. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the way in which her Department and agencies under her remit facilitate persons wishing to engage with their services through the Irish language; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [21912/21]

Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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370. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if all forms issued by her Department and agencies under her remit are available in both the Irish and English languages; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [21930/21]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 369 and 370 together.

Details of my Department's provisions for the delivery of services through the Irish language, including the provision of forms, are set out in the Department's Scéim Teanga which is available on www.gov.ie at .

All services and schemes operated by the Department's Gaeltacht Division are provided in Irish, but service in English is available if requested. In other Divisions where a service through Irish is not immediately available at any given time, arrangements are made to respond to requests for such a service. Service in Irish may not always be possible in the case of matters requiring specialist or technical knowledge.

Public information, forms and standard notifications, including relevant supplementary materials, are published in both official languages, other than in the case of documents of a technical, scientific or specialist nature.

The corresponding information in respect of those bodies under the aegis of my Department is published on the individual bodies' websites (see table below).

As the Deputy will be aware the Official Languages (Amendment) Bill which recently completed Committee Stage provides for the establishment of a statutory Irish Language Services Advisory Committee among whose functions will be the publication of a National Plan for the increase in the provision of public services through the medium of Irish. The Bill also includes provision for the replacement of the existing Irish language scheme (Ár Scéim Teanga) regime by the introduction of language standards for public bodies, with higher standards to be achieved by public bodies with greater interaction with the public. In addition to this, Section 9B of the Bill sets out the duties of public bodies regarding official forms. When the Bill is enacted, this provision will provide clarity on the issue of official forms, and ensure that all official forms used by public bodies are published in Irish or bilingually in Irish and English.