From Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
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Government Chief Whip and Minister of State for the Gaeltacht and Sport, Jack Chambers, announced today that his department has agreed and signed a contract with the University of Galway to undertake research that will form the basis of the National Plan for Irish Language Services. The work of the Irish Language Services Advisory Committee, established earlier this year under the Official Languages (Amendment) Act 2021, will be focused primarily on the preparation of this Plan from now until mid-2024.
The signing of this contract is a significant step forward, especially in the context of the news that broke recently that no tender was received for this research project through the procurement process announced by the department at the end of August.
This one-year contract was finally agreed through a negotiation process with a value of €325,500 attached. With this contract now agreed, the focus can now move to preparing the Plan by the specific deadline set for it in the Act, which is 19 June 2024. Arising from that Plan, the Minister will set dates by which all public services in and for the Gaeltacht will be made available in Irish and by which all public offices in the Gaeltacht will operate through the medium of Irish.
Under this contract, the University of Galway will undertake the following:
The preparation of the Plan is in line with achieving the overall objective of the Act, which is that 20% of recruits to the public service will be competent in the Irish language no later than 31 December 2030.
The Minister of State attended the end of year meeting of the Advisory Committee to commend them on the signing of the contract and for the work they have done and all the ideas they have put forward so far - many of which are being investigated by the department as potential measures in collaboration with relevant stakeholders.
Speaking at the event, Minister of State Chambers said:
"It will soon be time to look back on what has been achieved to date under the Act with it being almost a year in existence. Of course many pieces will have to come together and be brought together to ensure that the ambitious goals set out in the Act are achieved. The agreeing and signing of this contract is a major piece in the overall efforts being undertaken. The recommendations that are to come through this research will form the basis of the strategies to be set out by the Advisory Committee for public bodies in the National Plan in terms of expanding and improving the provision of services through Irish that they currently provide. Additionally, a statistical baseline will be identified with this research by which we can measure the progress made over the coming years. I greatly look forward to seeing the results of this research and wish those undertaking it every success.”
It is expected that the University of Galway will announce a recruitment competition early in the New Year to employ the required research team to undertake this important piece of work.