Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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155. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the percentage of social media posts made on each of his Departmental social media accounts or the social media accounts of public bodies and agencies that operate under his remit that were exclusively in Irish between 1 May 2022 and 30 April 2023, inclusive; the percentage of same that feature bilingual translations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23030/23]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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My Department is committed to providing services in both official languages, including communications campaigns promoting the Irish language at home and overseas. This includes adhering to the latest requirements under the Official Languages (Amendment) Bill 2019 regarding advertising in Irish and our obligations under the Official Languages Act 2003.

In terms of social media, given the fact that the Department’s outreach is primarily targeted at foreign audiences, there is a limited scope for social media posts exclusively in Irish. Instead therefore we usually provide Irish language posts with some English text included to ensure that the context and meaning of posts is understood abroad.

Twitter Posts:

Irish Only: 4.5%

Bilingual: 0%

Facebook Posts

Irish Language Only: 4.4%

Bilingual: 15.4%

Linkedin

Irish Only: 2.5%

Bilingual: 8.9%