Complaints over services through Irish

Nearly 600 complaints were made by members of the public last year over difficulties in accessing state services through Irish.

According to the 2008 annual report of the Office of an Coimisinéir Teanga, which was published today, six Government departments and a further six State agencies were found to have breached legislation aimed at protecting and promoting the Irish language.

The number of complaints made by the public over difficulties accessing services declined by four per cent, which an Coimisinéir Teanga, Seán Ó Cuirreáin, described as a “small but welcome” decrease.

The Government departments found to have breached elements of language legislation included the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, the Department of Social and Family Affairs, the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, the Department of Education and Science, and the Department of Transport.

Further breaches of the legislation were found in the Heritage Council, the Equality Authority, the Health Service Executive, Iarnród Éireann, the National Roads Authority and the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences.

During the year, 17 new investigations were launched by the Office of an Coimisinéir Teanga, up 70 per cent on 2007. In 15 of the investigations, breaches of statutory language rights were found.

“The breaches identified usually involved specific issues rather than non-compliance with statutory language obligations in general. A failure to comply with one element of legislation should not be interpreted as suggesting negligence in fulfilling language obligations generally,” said Mr Ó Cuirreáin.

One third of complaints made to an Coimisinéir Teanga last year came from Gaeltacht areas. On a regional basis, 38 per cent of complaints were from Co Dublin while 22 per cent came from Co Galway.