Publication
Irish Language Scheme 2019 - 2022
From Department of Social Protection
Published on
Last updated on
From Department of Social Protection
Published on
Last updated on
This Irish Language Scheme is now out of date. You can view the current Language Scheme 2023 - 2026 here.
A new Irish Language Scheme for the Department of Social Protection, as required under the Official Languages Act 2003, is now in place.
The objective of the Scheme is to maintain and enhance the level of quality service through Irish available to our customers.
The new Scheme has been developed within the policy context of the government's Strategy for the Irish Language 2010-2030 and has been informed by submissions received from our customers and staff.
This Language Scheme has been prepared by the Department of Social Protection ('the department') as required under the Official Languages Act 2003 ('the Act').
The Act provides for the preparation by public bodies of a statutory scheme detailing the services they will provide:
and the measures to be adopted to ensure that any service not provided through the medium of the Irish language will be so provided within an agreed timeframe. Responsibility for confirming Schemes lies with the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht ('the Minister').
In accordance with section 14(3) of the Act, language schemes remain in force for a period of 3 years or until such time as a new scheme is confirmed by the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, whichever is the later.
The then Department of Social Protection agreed a scheme with the Minister for Arts Heritage and the Gaeltacht which came into effect on 16 March 2015. This scheme succeeds that earlier scheme.
In recent years, the organisation and structure of the department has changed in a very fundamental way. The Intreo service was developed, amalgamating social welfare services with the Community Welfare Service and public employment services. The department developed and implemented new schemes such as Paternity Benefit, the Jobseekers Transition Scheme for lone parents, and the JobsPlus recruitment incentive to support people who are long-term unemployed. The SAFE registration process was rolled out to over 3 million citizens and the department implemented new online services such as MyWelfare.ie and MyGovID.ie and led on the development of legislation on gender recognition. More recently, responsibility for labour affairs and labour law including the Low Pay Commission was transferred to the department with effect from September 2017. This expansion of the department’s role reflects the close relationship between welfare, employment services and the labour market.
In the development of this Scheme, the approach taken was to develop a language scheme that would reflect the newly constituted Department of Social Protection which responds to the full range of needs across the entire organisation. The department has liaised with the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht in the development of this scheme.
The Act provides that the Minister may require public bodies to prepare a draft Scheme for confirmation by the Minister. The Act also provides for the preparation by the Minister of guidelines to assist in the preparation of draft schemes.
This Scheme has been drawn up in accordance with the guidelines, guided by the principle that the provision of services in the Irish language should be based on:
In February 2018, the department published a notice inviting submissions from any interested parties in relation to the preparation of the new Scheme. A notice inviting submissions was placed on the department’s website and a similar invitation was conveyed to all staff of the department. The new Scheme has been informed by the submissions received.
The Scheme has been developed within the policy context of the government’s ‘20 Year Strategy for the Irish Language 2010-2030’.
This scheme complements the principles of Quality Customer Service and our Customer Charter. It has been formulated with the intention of ensuring that all relevant obligations under the Official Languages Act by the department will be fully addressed on an incremental basis, through this and future schemes.
The objective of the Scheme is to build on progress achieved over the years, to maintain and enhance the level of quality service through Irish available to our customers during the life of this Scheme.
The Scheme includes a commitment to monitor the level of demand for services through Irish so that we can meet this demand in a planned, coherent and practical manner.
This scheme has been confirmed by the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. The Scheme takes effect from 26 February 2019 and shall remain in force for a period of 3 years from this date or until a new Scheme has been confirmed by the Minister, whichever is the later.
The department's mission statement is 'To promote active participation and inclusion in society through the provision of income supports, employment services and other services'.
The department’s overall objective is to continue putting our clients at the centre of all our operations, providing an efficient and effective service and to continue developing our staff, structures and processes.
The department supports the Minister for Social Protection in the discharge of governmental, parliamentary and departmental duties.
The department’s main functions are to:
The department administers over 70 separate schemes and services, which affect the lives of almost every person in the State. Annually in excess of 1.8 million customers’ claims are processed and nearly 81 million scheme payments are made. The total expenditure by the department for 2017 was €19.9 billion.
Key services include:
At the end of 2017, the department had a total of 6,730 staff serving (6,364 whole time equivalent posts) which includes both permanent and temporary staff.
The department is structured as follows;
Service delivery in the department is provided to the public through face-to-face contact through online services, by telephone and by written communication.
Website
The department's website is a critical information service to customers, providing application forms and details of available schemes and services.
Local Services and Intreo
Each of the ten divisional areas mentioned above has responsibility for the local delivery of an integrated activation and income support model which includes the provision of an integrated ‘one-stop shop’ service – Intreo – for clients. The Intreo Service implementation is part of the government’s commitments under the Pathways to Work policy. This one-stop shop integrates employment and income supports and provides for a streamlined and personalised service to customers in accessing job opportunities and availing of supports to enable them to get back to work at the earliest possible opportunity. A full Intreo Service is now available in all of the department’s former local offices.
Online Services
The department faces continuous challenges and changes to the way we do business. Customer expectation is also changing and evolving with demands that we provide services that are easy to access, quickly and securely, across different channels. In 2014/15 the department started work on the objective of delivering secure, personalised, bilingual, services online. A new government-wide platform called MyGovID was built, which is a single, secure, online identity and access portal that provides access to a range of government services. To enable the department’s customers to access personalised and online welfare services the department has also built a secure, online customer facing portal called MyWelfare. New services continue to be added to MyWelfare and work is ongoing to review the customer experience to ensure the services are accessible, intuitive and meeting customer needs.
WelfarePartners is a digital service for business partners of the department that utilises the Revenue Online Service (ROS) digital certificate for authentication and non-repudiation. Community Employment (CE) was the initial service to employers in 2017. Treatment Benefits (TB) services have since been added and this also extended the WelfarePartners online service to self-employed and sole traders.
Other Services
Other services are administered on a national basis by centralised offices in Dublin, Letterkenny, Sligo, Longford, Dundalk, Carrick-on-Shannon, Ballybay, Buncrana, Tubbercurry and Waterford. The majority of these offices engage with customers directly through public offices, online, by telephone, and in writing. They are mainly concerned with the administration of payment schemes.
Other centralised services deal mainly with planning, information technology, and internal administration issues and have only limited direct contact with the general public.
The General Register Office (GRO) which is based in Roscommon manages the Civil Registration Service which provides for the registration of births, stillbirths, adoptions, marriages, civil partnerships and deaths in the State. It also has a public office in Dublin. Registration services are provided, by Registrars appointed by the Health Service Executive, at various locations across the State.
The Social Welfare Appeals Office is based in Dublin. It was established to provide an appeals service, to persons who are unhappy with decisions of the department on questions relating to entitlement to social welfare payments and insurability of employment under the Social Welfare Acts.
Gaeltacht Offices
The following public offices are located in Gaeltacht areas: Acaill (Achill), An Clochán Liath (Dungloe) and Béal an Mhuirthead (Belmullet) Intreo offices and An Daingean (Dingle) Branch Office.
The department is committed to providing quality services to its customers in either Irish or English as required by the customer. This Chapter sets out a summary of the services which are currently available to the public through Irish.
The department is committed to fulfilling our obligations under the Official Languages Act.
The department's policy is to ensure that:
The department's website contains a large volume of material in both Irish and English. This includes information on the department’s range of schemes and services and also on-line query forms. Application forms and information leaflets are available for download from the department’s website in both Irish and English.
The department has put in place a website language policy which is available in a bilingual format on the department’s Intranet site. This policy includes a provision that when any material is being published on the website, the content owner is asked whether there is a requirement for simultaneous publication in both official languages. Where this is the case, the content owner is required to provide an Irish language version of the material before the English language version can be published.
The department is committed to ensuring the information on its website is accessible to all of its existing and future customers, families, people in employment, jobseekers, employers, people with disabilities, carers, retired and older people customer representative groups, staff and other government departments and information providers such as Citizens Information Board.
Application forms and information leaflets are available for download from the department’s website in line with our commitment to having application forms and information leaflets for the department’s schemes available in both Irish and English on the Website.
Also from the outset of the Scheme, an online form to allow customers to send queries to the department will be available in both Irish and English on the department's website and this will be continued during the life of the Scheme.
All services and information within www.MyGovid.ie, www.MyWelfare.ie and www.WelfarePartners.ie are available to our customers in both Irish and English. Services in both Irish and English languages must be fully available and functional before it can ‘go live.’
A list of current MyWelfare services is included at Appendix 1.
There are two main types of serviceareas: local services mainly provided by Intreo Centres and Branch Offices and Centralised Scheme areas provide for a wide range of social insurance and social assistance income support schemes such as child benefit payments illness/ disability payments and pensions.
Many of the department’s Intreo Centres and Branch Offices currently provide a telephone/ face to face service through Irish. In these offices, where an Irish speaking member of staff is not available at the time of the customers’ phone call/ visit to the office an appointment will be offered to the customer for the provision of face to face and/or telephone services through Irish. The offices currently able to provide this service are shown in Appendix 2.
The following of our centralised Scheme offices can all provide a telephone service through Irish:
When a customer phones one of these areas, they will be put through to an Irish speaking member of staff. Alternatively their details will be taken and an arrangement will be made to have an Irish speaking member of staff phone them back.
The department’s Information and Interpretive Services Section facilitates requests from business areas for translation/ and language interpretive services. This centrally accessible service arranges for timely translation of correspondence and documentation. The Section also makes arrangements for a language interpretive service in situations where a customer wishes to conduct their business in Irish and there is no staff member available to provide the service. The language interpretive service can be provided either by 3-way phone call, or in-person, as required.
The department has four public offices in Gaeltacht areas. All of these offices can currently provide a service through Irish.
Where public meetings are being held in Gaeltacht areas, such meetings may be conducted in Irish/ bilingually where requested by the attendees.
The department computer applications/ processing systems are capable of handling Irish data to support processing and communicating with customers through the medium of Irish.
The department’s Template Request for Tenders for Services includes a stipulation that the Successful Tenderer shall comply with all policies and/or guidelines relating to the provision of the Services, including but not being limited to complying with policies and/or protocols on employment law, official language, and health and safety regulations.
Standard messages on the department’s email, such as disclaimers of responsibility, are in both Irish and English.
STÓR is the title of the department’s intranet site. On STÓR there is a dedicated Official Languages Act page which contains information available to assist departmental staff in complying with the obligations of the Official Languages Act and improving service through Irish. There is also a dedicated Irish site (called Gaeilge) which contains cultural as well as business material. Business material on this site includes guidance notes, a database of bilingual signs and samples of bilingual stationery. The Gaeilge site is regularly updated with information on the Official Languages and news about events and publications.
A range of supports is available through the department’s Staff Development Unit (SDU) to equip frontline staff with the necessary skills and confidence to deliver a quality customer service in Irish by phone, letter and in person.
The department has continued to encourage and facilitate staff to avail of the range of supports and in particular to attend Irish training courses. Staff are supported on an ongoing basis to complete Certificate in Professional Irish (NFQ levels 3 to 6) with Gaelchultúr. The department has assessed Irish language training requirements through consultation with managers and staff and arranged for Irish language training for staff. Pre-entry language proficiency assessments are provided by Gaelchultúr to ensure staff are supported to attend the appropriate level.
The department has also ensured that the obligations under the Official Languages Act and Scheme are brought to the attention of staff at relevant staff training courses including new entrant induction courses and managers training courses. To this end, Irish Language Training is promoted by Staff Development Unit in “Meet & Greet”, “Induction & Orientation”, and “Frontline Customer Service” Training. Obligations under the Official Languages Act are specifically referenced throughout, with emphasis also placed on departmental interpretation and translation services and language training supports, including the department’s Refund of Fees scheme for staff who pursue Irish language education outside of work hours.
The department is committed to providing quality services to its customers in either Irish or English as required by the customer. This Chapter sets out the level of service which will be available to the public during the period of the Scheme 2016 to 2022. It also sets out the measures and actions which the department will undertake over the next three years to maintain and where possible improve services available through Irish.
The department's Customer Charter and Action Plan 2016-2018, delivered in accordance with Quality Customer Service Principles, states that the department will 'provide quality services through Irish and/or bilingually and inform customers of their right to choose to be dealt with through one or other of the official languages'. The department will continue to include in the Customer Charter and Action Plan this commitment to providing a quality service through Irish.
In addition to fulfilling the obligation to reply in Irish to correspondence received in Irish, the department is committed, from the inception of the scheme, to initiating correspondence in Irish to customers who have expressed a preference to have communications issued through Irish.
The department has in place a programme of modernisation of our information technology systems and of replacing legacy systems with Business Objects Model (BOMi) systems. The BOMi systems have a facility for recording the client’s language preference when the claim is registered. Where a customer expresses a preference to be communicated with through Irish, processes have been developed to ensure that the customer is communicated with through Irish. All of the department’s schemes are processed on BOMi excluding a number of working age schemes. The extension of the modernisation programme to include these schemes onto the BOMi will form part of a future phase of development.
The department will build on progress made in the provision of information, application forms and leaflets in both Irish and English on the department’s website. Any new information leaflets and static application forms placed on the website will be available in both Irish and English.
The department will continue to implement its website language policy.
The department is committed to having its press releases available in Irish on the website. From the inception of the scheme all press releases to be translated into Irish and published on the website as soon as possible after they have been published in English.
As previously stated, all services and information within www.MyGovid.ie, www.MyWelfare.ie and www.WelfarePartners.ie are provided to our customers in both Irish and English. From the inception of the scheme new services will be fully available in both Irish and English languages before they can ‘go live.’
The department will work to maintain and improve the level of services available through Irish as outlined in 'Provision of telephone/face to face services through Irish' above. However, this is subject to wider government policy on recruitment and deployment of staff in the public service sector and on the necessary budget provisions.
The department will continue to provide translation and language interpretive services as outlined in 'Translation and Interpretive Service' above during the lifetime of the Scheme.
All of the public offices located in Gaeltacht areas: (Acaill (Achill), An Clochán Liath (Dungloe) and Beal an Mhuirthead (Belmullet) Intreo offices and An Daingean (Dingle) branch office), can currently provide a telephone/ face to face service through Irish and will continue to do so during the life of the scheme.
During the life of the Scheme, the department will work to maintain and improve the level of service available through Irish in Gaeltacht areas as outlined in 'Offices in Gaeltacht areas' above and through the following:
Where public meetings are being held in Gaeltacht areas, such meetings may be conducted in Irish/ bilingually where requested by the attendees.
As part of the department’s workforce planning process Principals in the department are invited to identify posts which should be filled by staff capable of providing a service through Irish. Following consultation with Heads of Divisions, the department has concluded that the delivery of business through Irish will be better serviced by designating locations that require a bilingual officer rather than developing a framework of designated functional bilingual posts which is considered to be too restrictive.
Assigning functional bilingual officers by location irrespective of grade means that the department can draw from available PAS functional bilingual panels in the required location irrespective of grade and also through internal staff who are willing to provide a service through Irish.
The department is committed to the continued development and training of staff to facilitate the provision of services through Irish and to the continued provision of the range of supports available.
During the life of the Scheme the department will actively encourage and facilitate staff to avail of the range of supports and in particular to attend Irish training courses – see 'Training and Development' above. The department will continue to assess Irish language training requirements through consultation with managers and staff and arrange for Irish language training for staff.
From the inception of the scheme Staff Development Unit will engage with Corporate Planning Unit in relation to the training requirements, if any, of the members of staff who are willing and able to provide a service through Irish to our customers. This will include offering them training courses up to Level 6 on the National Framework of Qualifications and should they wish to avail of courses on higher levels of the National Framework of Qualifications, supporting them through the Refund of Fees scheme.
From the inception of the scheme the department is committed to ensuring that all new computer applications/ processing systems are capable of handling Irish language characters as outlined in 'Office Applications and Processing Systems' above. The department’s procurement guidelines state that this commitment must be taken into account when requirements/ specifications for administrative systems are being drafted.
The material on the department’s intranet site, STÓR will continue to be monitored, updated and improved. A copy of the department’s Scheme will be published on STÓR.
A list, by location alphabetically, of the contact details of staff willing to provide a service through Irish will be maintained up-to-date on STÓR.
The department will continue to develop and enhance the information available and encourage staff to engage in using the site as a key communication tool in the Irish language.
The department’s Corporate Planning Unit will:
The department will report on the delivery of services through Irish and the implementation of the Scheme in our Annual Report.
Corporate Planning Unit will co-ordinate monitoring and reporting on the Scheme both internally and externally as set out in 'Corporate Planning Unit' above.
The demand for services through Irish will be monitored during the Scheme. A survey of our offices dealing face-to-face with our customers will be conducted during the lifetime of the Scheme to indicate the level and type of service available through Irish.
Heads of Business Areas will be responsible for the implementation of the Scheme in their areas.
The department will annually review the implementation of its commitments in the Language Scheme.
A bilingual version of the scheme will be made available on our website and circulated to all staff and appropriate agencies.
Notices advising customers of the availability of services through Irish will be displayed in all relevant offices.
New recruits to the department will be advised of their obligations under the Act and Scheme as part of their introduction/induction training and of the learning supports available.
A copy of the Scheme will be forwarded to the Office of An Coimisinéir Teanga.
MyWelfare Services currently include:
| Regional Divisional Area | Intreo Centres | Branch Offices |
| Cork | Bantry, Carrigaline, Cork (Hanover Street) | Bandon, Fermoy, Kinsale, Mallow, Skibbereen |
| Dublin Central | Bishops Square, Cork Street, Navan Road, Nutgrove, Parnell Street | |
| Dublin North | Balbiggan, Ballymun, Coolock, Finglas, Kilbarrack, Swords | Trim |
| Dublin South/Mid-Leinster | Bray, Clondalkin, Dun Laoghaire, Tallaght | Athy, Wicklow |
| Midlands | Athlone, Clonmel, Kilkenny, Longford, Mullingar | Castlepollard, Portarlington |
| Mid-West | Bantry, Caherciveen, Ennis, Killarney, Limerick, Listowel, Newcastlewest, Tralee | An Daingean (Dingle)**, Ennistymon, Kilmallock, Kilorglin, Newmarket, Tulla |
| North East | Dundalk | |
| North West | An Clochán Liath (Dungloe)*, Buncrana, Dunfanaghy, Letterkenny, Manorhamilton, Sligo | Killybegs, Tubbercurry |
| South East | Waterford | Cahir, Carrick-on-Suir, Cashel, Dungarvan, New Ross |
| West | Acaill (Achill)*, Ballina, Béal an Mhuirthead (Belmullet)*, Castlebar, Clifden, Galway City, Loughrea, Westport | Ballinasloe, Boyle, Castlerea, Gort, Swinford, Tuam |
*Denotes offices situated in Gaeltacht areas
**Denotes Branch Office in Gaeltacht area