Significant achievements under the Official Languages (Amendment) Act 2021 in the last year
From Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
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From Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
Published on
Last updated on
The amount of Irish language advertising in the media has seen a notable increase over the past number of months. This is due to the commencement of a key provision of the Official Languages (Amendment) Act 2021. With the Act now a year in existence, the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Catherine Martin, and the Minister of State for the Gaeltacht, Patrick O’Donovan, would like to take a look back on what has been achieved under the Act in the last year.
The President of Ireland signed the Act into law on 22 December 2021, and since then the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media has been working diligently to implement all the provisions of the Act on a phased basis.
It was announced recently that the department has agreed a research contract with the University of Galway to undertake research that will form the basis of the preparation of the National Plan for Irish Language Services. A value of €325,500 has been put on this contract and its agreement is key to the overall efforts involved in ensuring that the ambitious objectives of the Act are achieved - including the one relating to 20% of recruits to the public sector being competent in Irish by 2030. In support of this work, a government commitment to implement the Plan has been given in Civil Service Renewal 2030.
Among the other highlights under the Act this year, were:
As part of the efforts to ease communications, public bodies were also asked to set up a designated email address for matters pertaining to the Act and many organisations have now done so.
Additionally, it is planned to run a large awareness campaign early this year focusing on the employment opportunities that exist for those with Irish in the civil and public service. It is intended that a regular awareness campaign, once a year or so, will be held to create awareness of specific aspects of the Act as and when they are commenced and developed.
The department has also received additional staffing resources together with €1 million of current funding in the 2023 Budget in order to consolidate and bolster efforts in this area. With this funding, a number of potential innovative initiatives are currently being examined, for example:
In 2023, work will also of course continue on commencing all sections and provisions of the Act on an incremental basis - including the language standards provision. To that end, it is intended to commence all Sections, other than Section 17 (as this Section cannot be commenced until all of the language standards have been agreed), this year on the following dates:
Assuming the full implementation of this commencement schedule, all material sections of the Act will have been commenced by the end of 2023 – a full year ahead of the three year timescale laid down in the Act.
Through all of this work to be done with regard to the implementation of the Act, the improved provision of services to the Irish-speaking community as well as the creation of significant employment opportunities for those with proficiency in the language will be ensured.
With regard to the dates provided for commencement of further provisions of the Act in 2023, a degree of flexibility is required in this as some sections provide for guidelines and advice to be given as well as feedback from public bodies. This timeframe is also based on current staffing resources available to the department. While unforeseen circumstances may impact on this indicative timeframe, every effort will be made to adhere to the dates given.
Official Languages (Amendment) Act 2021: