The Official Languages Act 2003 () is an Act of the Oireachtas of

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. The Act sets out rules regarding use of the

Irish language Irish (Standard Irish: ), also known as Irish Gaelic or simply Gaelic ( ), is a Celtic language of the Indo-European language family. It is a member of the Goidelic languages of the Insular Celtic sub branch of the family and is indigenous ...

by public bodies; established the office of to monitor and enforce compliance by public bodies with the provisions of the Official Languages Act; and made provision for the designation of official Irish-language versions of placenames and the removal of the official status of English placenames in the

Gaeltacht A ( , , ) is a district of Ireland, either individually or collectively, where the Irish government recognises that the Irish language is the predominant vernacular, or language of the home. The districts were first officially recognised ...

. The Act is being implemented on a phased basis.

Equal status between the Irish language and English language

Dublin airport sign in both English and Irish Gaelic languages

According to the Act the provision of services by the state in both the Irish and English languages should generally be the same. This means in practice that all state forms, some documents and major reports must be available in both languages and that Irish speakers should be able to do all of their business with the state through Irish if they so wish, subject to there being enough Irish speakers working in the public sector to provide the services. Also both the Irish language and English language should have equal status or prominence on most new state signage and stationery and there must be an Irish-language option on public sector customer phone lines and state-run websites. The Act also allowed for the introduction of bilingual automated speaker announcements on public transport and other less prominent instances of a bilingual policy in respect of the two official national languages. The only state-area not to be covered by the Official Languages Act in Ireland to date is road signage whose policy falls under the Department of Transport. The Official Languages Act 2003 does not cover the business or private sectors.

Placenames under the Official Languages Act

On 30 October 2003, Part 5 of the Official Languages Act came into effect. Under Part 5, the responsible minister (now the

Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media The Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport () is a senior minister in the Government of Ireland The Government of Ireland () is the executive (government), executive authority of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, headed by the , the h ...

), having received and considered advice from the Placenames Commission, may by ministerial order declare the Irish-language version of a placename specified in a Placenames Order. The principal legal effects of a Placename Order are one or other of the following: *in respect of any placename outside the

, the Irish and the English versions of the placename have the same status and the same legal force and effect; and *in respect of a placename in the Gaeltacht, the Irish version of the placename has legal force and effect while the English version of the placename has none.Section 33
Official Languages Act 2003
No. 32 of 2003 Any Placenames Order is without prejudice to private use of the Irish or English-language versions of a placename. In many cases, it is also without prejudice to public use of a placename. However, where a Placenames Order is made in respect of placenames in the Gaeltacht, the English version of such placenames cannot be used in three instances: in future Acts of the

Oireachtas The Oireachtas ( ; ), sometimes referred to as Oireachtas Éireann, is the Bicameralism, bicameral parliament of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The Oireachtas consists of the president of Ireland and the two houses of the Oireachtas (): a house ...

; in road or street signs erected by or on behalf of a local authority; and in statutory instruments. Under Irish law, a "Statutory Instrument" includes "an order, regulation, rule, bye-law, warrant, licence, certificate, direction, notice, guideline or other like document made, issued, granted or otherwise created by or under an Act f the Oireachtas and certain pre-Irish constitution Acts. The minister has made several Placename Orders. The Placenames (Ceantair Ghaeltachta) Order 2004 came into operation on 28 March 2005. This Placenames Order was in respect of placenames in the Gaeltacht and, therefore, one of its effects was to remove all legal force and effect from the English-language version of hundreds of placenames. As a result, today towns such as those formerly officially known as Belmullet and

Spiddal Spiddal, also known as Spiddle (Irish language, Irish and official name: , , meaning 'the hospital'), is a village on the shore of Galway Bay in County Galway, Ireland. It is west of Galway city, on the R336 road (Ireland), R336 road. It is o ...

are now, in law, known only as and . In Dingle, County Kerry, a plebiscite organised by Kerry County Council voted to restore the official status of the English name and to revert the official Irish name from to . The council action was , so in 2011 the Local Government Act 2001 was amended to make the name changes in relation to Dingle and to allow similar plebiscites elsewhere.

Official translations

Section 7 of the 2003 act requires that an official Irish translation of each act of the Oireachtas must be published simultaneously with the publication of its English version. However, several complex acts have sections making themselves exempt from this provision. A 2011 amendment to the act exempts

electronic publishing Electronic publishing (also referred to as e-publishing, digital publishing, or online publishing) includes the digital publication of e-books, digital magazines, and the development of digital libraries and catalogues. It also includes the ed ...

of acts from the provision - Official Languages Act 2003 (Section 9) Regulations 2008.

Official Languages (Amendment) Act 2021

In 2011 then Minister of State for the Gaeltacht Dinny McGinley TD announced at that year's Oireachtas na Gaeilge that he was launching a review of the Official Languages Act 2003. This led to the Official Languages (Amendment) Act 2021. The biggest aim of the act is for a quota of 20% of public sectors jobs to be designated for Irish speakers by 2030 with a National Plan for the Provision of Public Services in Irish to be developed. The act further states that all public offices in the Gaeltacht will operate through the medium of Irish. And that state companies will have to spend 20% of their advertising budgets on advertising through the Irish language with a quarter of that 20% at a minimum having to be spent on the Irish language media. And the act also complies State organisations to be obliged to spell Irish speakers names and addresses accurately with ''fadas'' for those Irish speakers who want to have their names and addresses spelt with ''fadas''. These measures were phased in and are now all in force.

20-year target

The successful implementation of the act forms part of the 20-Year Strategy for the Irish Language 2010–2030 to have at least 250,000 daily speakers of Irish by 2030.Official Languages Act (Amendment) 2021 signed by the President of Ireland December 2021
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References

External links

Official Languages Act 2003

Acht na dTeangacha Oifigiúla 2003
{{Gaeltacht Irish language 2003 in Irish law Acts of the Oireachtas of the 2000s Irish language legislation