Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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253. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the current entitlement of native Irish speakers to access State services through the medium of Irish; and the status of the publication of a new Irish language Bill. [5936/21]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The Official Languages Act 2003 was signed into law on 14 July 2003. The primary objective of the Act is to ensure the improved provision of public services through the Irish language.

The Act as it currently stands provides for the delivery of public services in Irish in three ways:

- through provisions of the Act which are applicable to all public bodies under the Act;

- through regulations made by the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media which again are applicable to all public bodies under the Act; and,

- through language schemes which are agreed with individual public bodies and which provide for an increase over time in the number and standard of services provided in Irish by these public bodies.

The Office of An Coimisinéir Teanga was established under the Act in 2004. The primary functions of the Office are to monitor compliance by public bodies with the provisions of the Act and to take appropriate measures to ensure such compliance.

The Official Languages (Amendment) Bill 2019, as referenced by the Deputy, was published in December 2019. The primary purpose of the Bill is to amend the Official Languages Act 2003 with a view to increasing and improving the provision of public services through the Irish language. Central to these efforts will be a series of provisions which aim to increase the number of Irish speakers recruited to the public service.

Committee Stage for the Official Languages Bill (Amendment) 2019 commenced on Friday 22

January and has still to be completed.

The Bill allows for a statutory Irish Languages Services Advisory Committee to be established to increase and improve the provision of public services through the Irish language. It is proposed that the Advisory Committee be established no later than six months after the Bill has been enacted. The functions of the Advisory Committee are laid out in the Bill and include the publication of a National Plan with the aim of increasing the amount of public services provided through the medium of Irish. It is proposed that the National Plan be prepared and provided to the Minister no later than two years after the Committee's establishment.  

This Bill provides for an overall objective of 20% of all new recruits in the public service being competent in the Irish language. It is now proposed that this be achieved no later than 2030.

Furthermore, it is proposed that the Language Commissioner will have additional powers in order to monitor provisions in other enactments relating to the use or status of the official language and to provide commentaries in the way that he or she sees fit.

The enactment of this Bill will help to strengthen the Irish language in the public sector so that high quality Irish language services will be available to the Irish speaking and Gaeltacht communities.