Organisation information
Official Languages Act
From Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications
Published on
Last updated on
From Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications
Published on
Last updated on
The Irish language is a vital and living part of our culture. It is used on a daily basis by many people throughout Ireland, and remains a living community language in many Gaeltacht areas.
Increasing the use and knowledge of Irish as a community language, and ensuring that as many citizens as possible are bilingual in both Irish and English are objectives of government policy.
The purpose of the Official Languages Act 2003 is to ensure that high quality services are widely available to the public through Irish. As a public body under the Act, the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications is obligated to provide services in Irish to the public in three ways:
Our main duties under the Act are to:
We work closely with the Office of An Coimisinéir Teanga to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Act.
We recognise the role this department has in helping realise this objective, in particular by ensuring that in public services the use of Irish or English will be, as far as practical, a choice for the citizen to make.