(Seo alt ónár bhfoireann Gaeltachta. Is féidir an bunleagan as Gaeilge a léamh anseo)

THE GOVERNMENT IS breaching targets set out in legislation regarding the publication of a language standards system, and that means a significant cornerstone is missing as efforts are made to implement the Government’s strategic plan for improving Irish language services.

That is how Séamus Ó Coincheanainn, the Language Commissioner, described his concerns as he launched his office’s annual report for 2025 today.  

The Language Commissioner’s role is to monitor the delivery of public services in Irish, as set out in the Official Languages Act, and is appointed for seven year terms by the President after being approved by the Oireachtas.

In the foreword to the report, Ó Coincheanainn said that the language rights of the Irish-speaking community were being breached due to “significant delays” in implementing the amended language legislation enacted in 2021, which was aimed at substantially improving public services through Irish.

The Commissioner highlighted statutory targets that had been missed since 2024. Among them was a guideline that would allow a person to have their personal data in Irish – name, surname, address and fadas – issued before the end of March 2025, and that has still not happened.

Other deadlines had also been missed – a deadline for guidelines on services to be made available by public bodies through Irish, and an update to the list of bodies that would be bound by language standards.

According to Ó Coincheanainn, these were critical elements of the backbone on which the improvement of public services in Irish in Ireland depends.

“More than four years after the enactment of the amended Act in 2021, key sections of the legislation remain unimplemented, with statutory deadlines associated with them unmet,” he said.

“The law is not being implemented as clearly set out,” he said.

“It is clear that the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht is struggling with the burden of bringing these various elements into effect.

“They can be envisaged as separate projects of varying scale and scope, and there are planning matters involved, resources need to be available, and ensuring they are brought into effect in line with statutory timelines.

“What I am saying is that the improvement of public services in Irish depends greatly on these elements that are still missing being brought into effect without delay, and action is needed on that now.”

Among the statutory provisions yet to be put in place is the new language standards system, which will set out the new services that public bodies will be obliged to provide in Irish.

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Among the recommendations he made in the report, Ó Coincheanainn recommended that a “new public services infrastructure” be developed in the Gaeltacht “to address the many obstacles and delays that the Gaeltacht community is currently experiencing in accessing high-quality services in Irish.”

“Campus hubs where a critical mass of public services would be provided in Irish and where a concentration of staff with good Irish would be based would address many of the obstacles in question,” he said, suggesting that such hubs could be located on industrial estates developed by Údarás na Gaeltachta or through the remote working centre network, the G-Teiceanna.

In the report, the Commissioner highlighted the success of the section of the legislation requiring public bodies to spend 20% of their advertising budgets on advertising in Irish and 5% on advertising in Irish language media – equivalent to approximately €19 million in total in 2024 and €5 million on advertising in Irish language media in the same year.

There was a slight reduction in the number of complaints to the Commissioner’s Office — down from 594 in 2024 to 580 in 2025 – with complaints in 31% of cases relating to questions of customer support, official forms and the like. Twenty-seven percent of complaints related to signage matters.

Two investigations were cited in the report – one into the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland for providing a reply in English to correspondence in Irish. In a case where an investigation was carried out into the Galway and Roscommon Education and Training Board, it was found that the board had breached its own language scheme by recruiting a person without Irish to a senior management post.

The Journal’s Gaeltacht initiative is supported by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.

This article was originally written in the reporter’s native Irish and has been translated to English here. AI was used as part of the translation process before final edits.