One in five complaints lodged with the Office of the Coimisinéir Teanga in 2021 related to a lack of services being provided by State agencies in Irish during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Members of the public contacted the coimisinéir teanga’s office “in large numbers expressing much disappointment” that services provided through Irish “were often marginalised during the pandemic,” an Coimisinéir Teanga Rónán Ó Domhnaill wrote in his annual report published on Wednesday.
The Coimisinéir Teanga’s role includes ensuring compliance by public bodies with language legislation that protects the rights of Irish speakers which are recognised in the Constitution and under the Official Languages Act.
The office received 727 complaints from the public in 2021, representing an increase of 20 per cent on the previous year.
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More than a quarter of the complaints (27 per cent) came from Gaeltacht areas, an increase from 23 per cent in 2020 and from 18 per cent in 2019.
Overall, 123 complaints relating to Covid-19 accounted for approximately 20 per cent of the total number of complaints received. Many related to services such as booking a PCR test or a vaccine appointment online not being available in Irish.
“I also received complaints relating to a lack of information in Irish regarding the pandemic and efforts by the State to curtail it,” Mr Ó Domhnaill wrote in the report.
“This included letters, signage, school circulars and websites, many of which were distributed or published in English only.”
Mr Ó Domhnaill said that he was concerned that if an emergency occurred again, “a lack of planning and a lack of urgency” relating to the provision of services in Irish would lead to a reoccurrence of services “being provided in English only”.
“The message, at times, seemed to be … the more urgent the situation, the less likely one is to receive the service in Irish. This is obviously unacceptable and shows the need to ensure services through Irish are included at every stage of the planning process for State services,” Mr Ó Domhnaill told The Irish Times.
“This is why the revised Official Languages Act, with its stated aim of ensuring 20 per cent of new recruits to the public service are proficient in Irish, is so important,” he added.
The provision of services in Irish “sounds quite simple”, Mr Ó Domhnaill said, “but in many instances it doesn’t happen”.
The cases highlighted in the report include five formal investigations concluded by the Office in 2021.
One investigation found that Meath Co Council breached its own development plan by not ensuring the linguistic heritage of the Gaeltacht was protected when determining planning applications in Ráth Chairn, one of the country’s smallest and most sensitive Gaeltacht areas.
“The investigation highlighted the considerable variance between the comprehensive manner in which Meath County Council implemented other provisions of the County Development Plan and the lack of care and lack of implementation that related to the linguistic objectives,” Mr Ó Domhnaill wrote in the report.
The report also references cases in which the office monitored agencies following previous breaches of legislation.
Mr Ó Domhnaill said engagement is “ongoing” with RTÉ after the State broadcaster was found to be in breach of the Broadcasting Act in 2018 due to the lack of provision of a comprehensive range of programming in Irish and current affairs programming.
While recognising an improvement in Irish language programming, the “dearth” of current affairs programming in Irish which is a statutory obligation under the Broadcasting Act is “a continuing cause for concern”, Mr Ó Domhnaill said.
