There was a significant increase in the number of complaints made to An Coimisinéir Teanga, the Irish language commission, last year in relation to problems people had when dealing with State services through Irish.
A total of 687 complaints were made to Coimisinéir Teanga Seán Ó Cuirreáin about difficulties accessing services through Irish in 2009.
While most were dealt with either by advice or informal negotiations, Mr Ó Cuirreáin’s office launched 17 investigations, to ascertain if a department, authority or agency was in contravention of the Official Languages Act.
One investigation showed the ministerial office of then minister for education Batt O’Keeffe had contravened the act by replying in English to a letter sent to Mr O’Keeffe by the chair of a board of management of an Irish-language school.
A separate investigation found the Department of Education also fell foul of the provisions of the Act by not ensuring the prioritisation of Irish-speaking staff to the administrative section dealing with Gaeltacht schools and all-Irish schools.
“It also failed to increase the percentage of Irish material on its website to 30 per cent and to publish Irish versions of press releases announcing new schemes or policy changes. A commitment to provide a dedicated telephone number for queries in Irish was also not implemented,” states the report.
Mr Ó Cuirreáin said much progress had been made but emphasised the “significant gaps” between the standards of service provided to Irish speakers and English-language services.
He also stressed the perilous state of Irish in Gaeltacht regions, underlining the necessity of the State adhering to obligations imposed by the Act.
“The future of Irish as a living community language, even in the strongest Gaeltacht areas, is currently at its most vulnerable level - at crisis point according to some analysts - particularly among the younger generation,” he said.
Investigations were conducted into alleged failures in several other bodies with regard to their obligations. They included Galway Co Council which assigned a community ward without sufficient fluency in Irish to the Gaeltacht area of An Spidéal, Co Galway.
The Revenue Commissioners had a practice of issuing the Irish version of press releases on its websites after a delay of between four and nine months after their initial publications in English. This was “deemed unacceptable”.
Some 377 requests were made during the year by employees of public bodies for advice in relation to language obligations, an increase of over 150 per cent.
