There is a “concerning pattern” of missed statutory deadlines related to the implementation of legislation designed to improve public services in Irish, according to a progress report.
Under the Languages (Amendment) Act 2021, the Government has committed to improve the quality of essential services in Irish provided to the public by State bodies.
“It is a fundamental right of the Irish language community that statutory provisions protecting and promoting its language rights be implemented in accordance with deadlines specified in national legislation,” An Coimisinéir Teanga Séamas Ó Concheannain writes in his annual report for 2025.
He said key provisions of the Act had not been implemented and related deadlines had not been fulfilled, more than four years after the legislation was enacted.
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Core components of the legislation not yet implemented include standards of language competence outlining the services that will be available in Irish throughout the public service.
Ó Concheannain, whose ombudsman role was established in 2004 to support Irish speakers’ rights, said “significant delays” in establishing competence standards meant the cornerstone of the national plan to improve Irish-language public services was still missing.
Basic functions such as registering for public services, applying for support, and making appointments in Irish across help desks, by telephone, web chat or online are affected, the report states.
Obligations to provide forms in Irish and to ensure computer systems can accurately record names and addresses in Irish, “are still outstanding”, Ó Concheannain said.
In 2025, his office received 580 complaints from the public. Most (31 per cent) related to the provision of Irish language services, while others related to responses in English to written communication in Irish, and inaccuracy in processing names and postal addresses in Irish.
In 2024, State bodies spent €18.9 million on Irish-language advertising, a fifth of their overall spend, and of which €5.2m was spent solely with Irish-language media.
The requirement that State bodies spend a proportion of their advertising budgets on Irish-language media has proven to be “one of the most successful sections” of the languages act, Ó Concheannain writes.
The report states that the increased spend has strengthened the language rights of the Irish-speaking community and raised the visibility of Irish across both traditional and digital media.
