New language act entering force in Republic with job quotas for Irish speakers

The Irish government is in the process of enacting a new Irish langauge act, bringing with it quotas for the number of Irish speakers in the civil service.
By Adam Kula
Published 15th Dec 2021, 19:48 BST
Updated 15th Dec 2021, 20:59 BST

The act is basically an extension of a law which is already in force – namely, the Official Languages Act 2003.

The 2003 act placed direct obligations on public bodies regarding services to be provide through Irish.

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This meant that everything from government answering machine messages to stationery and road signs had to be bilingual or simply in Irish.

The 2003 act also specified that “a person may use either of the official languages in, or in any pleading in or document issuing from, any court.

“Every court has, in any proceedings before it, the duty to ensure that any person appearing in or giving evidence before it maybe heard in the official language of his or her choice.”

A commissioner was also brought into being to enforce these laws.

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The new act basically amends this to also say that the government will “seek to meet an overall objective of 20% of new recruits to the public service being Irish speakers, and that all public offices situated in Gaeltacht areas will operate through the medium of Irish”.

It will also require public bodies to facilitate the use by persons of their names and addresses in the Irish language when communicating with public bodies, and for all new public bodies to bear Irish language or bilingual names and logos.

In Northern Ireland, Irish language campaigners had dismissed the idea that an Irish language act would lead to quotas for Irish speakers in public jobs.

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