Here at Ambrand Dot Com we enjoy reading acts, regulations, and parliamentary debates. Recently we cam across the Official Languages Act 2003. Given the title and year, the objective is obvious, viz to promote the Irish language.
The Act places a statutory obligation on departments of state and public bodies (but not the private sector) to make specific provision for the delivery of their services in a coherent fashion through a statutory planning framework, known as a “scheme”. This is agreed on a three-year renewable basis between the head of the body concerned and the Minister (for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs).
This renewal process will be used to adjust observance with the mood of the era, promoting Irish while in vogue (as it is now) and quietly putting it on the back boiler (in the future).
The Act is of course lenghty but the key points are as follows
- correspondence to be replied to in the language in which it was written (English or Irish) this will create some jobs in the civil service for Irish speakers
- providing information to the public in the Irish language only, or in the both Irish and English languages (the former is worrying, it means that unpopular information could be provied in Irish only which few people would pay attention to)
- The right of any person to use the Irish language before either House of the Oireachtas including any committee thereof (again unpopular infotmation could be read into the hansard and not understood even by many members of the house)
- Publication of Acts simultaneously in both official languages (so translators must be employed)
- The right of a person to be heard in and to the use Irish language in court proceedings (so translators must be employed, in a lower court this could be used as a stalling tactic while one is located)
- the Irish language becomes the working language in its offices situated in the Gaeltacht areas (this could stop some cash strapped areas using the title as it can no longer be a token funds magnet)
- The establishment of Oifig Choimisinéir na dTeangacha Oifigiúla to supervise and monitor the Act and to ensure that it is implemented, the Commissioner will be independent of political interference and will be appointed by the President (more costly bureaucracy, and the president will probably appoint “on the advice of” the Minister anyway, so it is political)
- Official placenames in Gaeltacht areas being in the Irish language only and equal status being given to the Irish and English language versions of official placenames in other parts of the country (Dingle…)
Overall we do not like the Act, it’s not that we are “anti-irish (language)” but rather that it
- wastes (our opinion) precious public funds
- promotes something that the majority of the country don’t want
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