A “critical period” lies ahead for the Government to strengthen the language rights of the Irish language community, an Coimisinéir Teanga Séamas Ó Concheanainn has said.
Mr Ó Concheanainn said the “continuous trend” and the type of complaints received annually by his Office demonstrates that the State will have to tackle the “large gaps” in public services that are provided to the Irish language community.
In comments made in his Office’s annual report for 2023, Mr Ó Concheanainn said a “realistic and incremental approach” will be required to meet the legislative requirement that one-in-five new recruits to the public service can speak Irish at a high standard by 2030.
The purpose of this legislative requirement under the Official Languages (Amendment) Act 2021 is to ensure that high quality services are available to the public through Irish.
Another related requirement is the development of a National Plan for Irish Language Public Services, due to be published this year. The National Plan’s main goal is to create a clear path for improving public service delivery through Irish.
Mr Ó Concheanainn listed the plan, which he said “will be of particular importance”, as one of three specific actions needed to deal with the “significant gaps” relating to the delivery of public services in Irish.
The other actions are the full implementation of the new provisions of the Languages Act and the implementation of Language Standards which shall address the gaps in public services delivered through Irish.
Mr Ó Concheanainn said it is “vitally important” that the implementation of language rights is embedded “in the governance mentality of public bodies”.
“If planning, organisational management and the appropriate governance preparations are not undertaken, the Irish language community will not be accorded parity of esteem,” Mr Ó Concheanainn warned.
Mr Ó Concheanainn said “It is critical that the Irish language community retains confidence in public services provided by the State through the Irish language.”
He said this confidence is “affirmed” when the Irish language community observes “that equal treatment is provided as a result of high-quality services.”
An Coimisinéir Teanga’s Office recorded a 6 per cent overall increase in the number of complaints from the public in 2023, increasing from 600 in 2022 to 634 last year.
The level of complaints in 2023 relating to answers provided by public bodies in English to correspondence initiated in Irish “remained significantly high,” the report said.
Some of the complaints related to the use by public bodies of online systems that compel the public to use a particular official language, instead of providing a choice to use either of the official languages.
Other complaints related to the use of the correct form of names, surnames, addresses and titles in Irish, including the síneadh fada.
The report also outlines an investigation carried out by the Office into An Post and Galway County Council.
In the case of An Post, the investigation found that it breached the Official Languages Act through providing an online system in English only, which prevented a member of the public communicating with the service in their language of choice, Irish.
A statutory investigation conducted into Galway County Council revealed that it also breached the Act by providing an interactive service system relating to the planning application process in English only.
Mr Ó Concheanainn said implementation of one of the provisions of the language act, under which public bodies are required to carry out 20 per cent of their advertising in Irish every year, is “certainly increasing visibility and Irish language use across various media”.
Mr Ó Concheanainn said it is “important to recognise this progressive development.”
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