George Lawlor (Wexford, Labour)
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927. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if his Department has an official policy on the use of the fada in Irish names from official State sources; his views on whether citizens whose names contain a fada should be properly addressed in official communications; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54917/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The Official Languages (Amendment) Act 2021 has introduced a series of important changes and new measures as part of the overall ecosystem that the Act seeks to develop towards a fully bilingual public service.

One such measure relates to the correct recording and use by public bodies of names, addresses and titles in the Irish language, including the use of the síneadh fada (Section 9A) and was inserted into the principal Act in December 2024 by the commencement of Section 5 of the 2021 (Amendment) Act. This provision also includes ensuring that ICT systems used by public bodies are configured to accept same.

This duty is not a direct duty and public bodies must be prescribed for its purposes. Consultation on this prescription is underway in tandem with the drafting of Ministerial guidelines to assist with its implementation.

These guidelines have been prepared in accordance with the Act to provide a practical framework to assist public bodies in fulfilling their new obligations under this and other new sections of the Act (Sections 9A-9D). The guidelines are to issue shortly, once the current consultation phase has been completed.

In further support of this work, a technical working group is to be established under the National Plan for Irish Language Public Services to oversee implementation of this and other technical aspects of the Plan and the Act in general. This group has broad representation from across the public sector, between Government Departments and wider public bodies, with the membership focusing on core services and level of interaction with the public. This Group will act as pioneers in terms of ensuring the Irish language is embedded in various technological developments within participants' own organisations as well as sharing best practice among participating bodies and with the wider public service.

Much innovative work is underway under the Official Languages Acts and as part of same, I have no doubt that the simple act of ensuring that our systems across the public service can correctly capture names, addresses and titles in the Irish language will go a long way in instilling public confidence in that work.

I will continue to work with colleagues across Government to ensure the citizen's right to be addressed in the official language of their choice is reflected in both policy and practice.