Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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178. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment 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. [23028/23]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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My Department is committed to ensuring that information and services are accessible to all citizens. Our Irish Language Scheme sets out our commitments in terms of providing information, services and participation through Irish. We have an Irish Language Officer who is working with the social media team to ensure that we continue to grow our bilingual and Irish language content across all platforms.

In the period in question, my Department did not post exclusively in Irish. 31 posts were published bilingually (4% of total posts). This is out of a total of 763 posts across Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. My Department will increase these figures across the remainder of 2023.

It is also worth noting that certain documents are published by my Department bilingually on gov.ie, including policy documents and public consultations. In some cases where my Department uses social media to raise awareness of policy initiatives, the information being highlighted by the post or tweet is available bilingually on gov.ie.

Two divisions in my Department have their own social media accounts (the Geological Survey of Ireland – GSI; and the National Cyber Security Centre – NCSC). The information in relation to these two accounts is being compiled and will be forwarded to the Deputy.

The information requested in relation to the agencies under the aegis of my Department is an operational matter for each agency. The Department will request the relevant bodies to reply directly to the Deputy with the information requested in respect of their organisations.