Pat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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103. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the steps he is taking to address the shortage of staff in the public sector with a high enough proficiency to provide telephone information, helpdesk and web chat services in Irish, as identified in the 2024 Annual Report of An Coimisinéir Teanga. [38071/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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While An Coimisinéir Teanga has identified some gaps in the provision of Irish language public services in his 2024 Annual Report, I am encouraged that much of the work currently being undertaken by my department under the Act will look to directly address most of these.

The primary mechanism in addressing staff shortages is of course the Act’s overarching 20% recruitment target. In support of this work, the first ever National Plan for Irish Language Public Services was published in October 2024, focusing on five major strategic themes - one of which is training and recruitment. The publication of this Plan, the first of its kind since the foundation of the State, marks a significant step forward in the government’s move towards a bilingual public service.

This is to be supported shortly by the first of two Action Plans as well as consultations on draft language standards for public bodies and other provisions of the Act.

In this context, I envisage a number of key priorities for public bodies in the period ahead, namely:

• utilising workforce planning as a core tool to identify specific roles that would require bilingual employees – with customer services being priorities in this regard, particularly in the Gaeltacht.
• proactively offering Irish language training courses to current staff and new recruits and removing potential barriers to training.
• proactively recruiting people with Irish and gathering relevant information through the recruitment process.