Conradh na Gaeilge has expressed concern about a two-year action plan to strengthen the State’s capacity to deliver bilingual public services.
Published by the Department of the Gaeltacht on Tuesday, the Action Plan for Irish Language Public Services 2026-2028 sets out more than 100 recommendations intended to strengthen the State’s capacity to deliver bilingual public services.
The recommendations include creating service hubs to provide core services through Irish in Gaeltacht areas, language supports and training for public service staff, embedding Irish into AI developments, establishing a dedicated network for Official Languages Officers and developing support initiatives to ensure new Irish communities have an opportunity to learn Irish.
Conradh na Gaeilge said “significant shortcomings”, particularly within the education system, could undermine the Government’s target of ensuring that 20 per cent of public servants are competent in Irish by 2030.
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General secretary of Conradh na Gaeilge Julian de Spáinn said many of the actions outlined in the plan “are dependent on feasibility studies” and he queried the “uncertainty” around timelines associated with completing these studies and implementing their recommendations.
Mr de Spáinn also said “it appears that sufficiently ambitious and measurable actions have not been set out for the Department of Education and Youth and the Department of Further and Higher Education in particular, especially in terms of aligning the education system with the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), to ensure there will be enough people in to the future with the appropriate level of competence to provide Irish-language services.”
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The action plan, released by Minister for the Gaeltacht Dara Calleary, is the first of two implementation plans under the National Plan for Irish Language Public Services 2024-2030.
Conradh na Gaeilge is seeking a meeting with the Irish Language Services Advisory Committee which prepared the plan to seek clarification on the implementation timeline, and “to make proposals to address the gaps identified in the plan.”
Speaking on Tuesday, Mr Calleary said goodwill and positivity towards the Irish language “has never been higher” and described the action plan as “an important and significant step” towards achieving a bilingual public service.
The recommendations outlined in the plan are organised around key themes: recruitment and human resources, training and skills development, delivery of public services in Irish, technological solutions for the Irish language, and raising awareness of this work as well as monitoring and evaluation.
Mr Calleary said he was confident the action plan would receive cross-departmental support within Government and said an additional €3 million has been allocated to the language planning process this year.
“There are challenges, and I understand those challenges exist. But there are a lot of new structural arrangements in place that we didn’t have 10 years ago. There are now 50 people working in language planning, we have the Language Act and we have the Action Plan for Irish in the Public Services.
“Because of the impact the Act has had on advertising, you can hear a lot more Irish in the media. That wasn’t there 10 years ago,” Mr Calleary said.
“We are announcing more than 100 recommendations today. Every Government department is involved. We have a new unit in the department that will manage [implementation of the recommendations].
“I am confident we have the structures in place and I am confident we have the finances,” he said.
The plan is due to be reviewed in early 2028 in advance of the second action plan’s publication.
