The Minister of State for the Gaeltacht, Sport and Physical Education, Thomas Byrne T.D., officially launched the Public Sector – Irish Language Network with an event attended by almost 200 people in the official State guesthouse, Farmleigh House in Phoenix Park, Dublin.
Given the increase seen in the number of people undertaking Irish language training courses in the public sector in recent times, the launch and establishment of this network is closely aligned with the wishes of those participants for increased language acquisition opportunities outside the classroom.
This network now gives a formal basis to the creation of Irish language speaking opportunities for those in the public sector who wish to develop, maintain or use their Irish in the context of work – from learners up to advanced competence and everything in between. This network welcomes civil servants, public sector employees in general, professional/technical grades such as doctors, nurses, teachers, engineers, legal advisers and other roles such as Gardaí Síochána, bus drivers and others.
Minister of State Byrne also launched a dedicated website for the network on the night – www.greasangaeilge.ie , together with a registration portal .
Speaking at the official launch, Minister of State Byrne said:
“First off, I would like to congratulate Oireachtas na Gaeilge for their commitment to the State’s vision in strengthening the language in the public system and for all the hard work they have done since the end of last year towards launching this network. The main message I want to convey here tonight is that this is a welcoming, inclusive and diverse network. Whatever your level of competence, from basic level up to advanced, you are welcome to register with the network so that you can use, develop and sustain that level of competence.
This network is a central element in the Government’s efforts to increase support for learners and speakers of Irish across the public sector in the coming years – especially in the context of our work under the Official Languages Acts 2003-2021 and increasing the number of people with Irish language competence in the system.
It is worth noting that 50% of circa 35,000 state employees who took part in a recent survey indicated that they would be interested in increasing their Irish language competence. I am also interested in the 23% who indicated in the same survey that they would be interested in working through Irish with additional training/supports, together with the 5% who said they were already working through Irish or would be interested in working through Irish without additional training/supports. This clearly demonstrates to me the great opportunity we have to empower people both inside and outside public organisations to increase their language skills over the coming years.”
Minister of State Byrne was referring on the night to the research carried out by the University of Galway on behalf of the Irish Language Services Advisory Committee in relation to the preparation of the first ever National Plan for Irish Language Public Services. The Advisory Committee recently submitted the National Plan to him, with it to be considered and submitted to Government in the autumn.
Under the Official Languages Acts, it is intended to greatly increase and improve the number and quality of public services provided through Irish, together with ensuring a sufficient number of staff competent in Irish are available to provide these services. To that end, the Government’s statutory target under the Act is for 20% of recruits to the public sector to be competent in Irish by the end of 2030. In that context, innovative ways to enable the sector to achieve that goal are to be looked at – the establishment of this network being one of them.
More information about the network can be obtained by contacting eolas@greasangaeilge.ie or by visiting the newly launched website here . The next event is intended for early autumn.
From Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
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