The Government may be faced with legal claims from civil servants whose promotional prospects were hampered by failure to honour a bonus system for Irish-language proficiency.
Half of all Government departments and offices have either abandoned or failed to implement the system introduced in 1975, according to An Coimisinéir Teanga, the Irish language commissioner Seán Ó Cuirreáin.
In the Department of Education, only 3 per cent of its staff can provide services through Irish.
The president of Conradh na Gaeilge Daithí Mac Carthaigh has described the findings as "scandalous" and has recommended that any worried civil servant should seek legal advice. A free legal-aid system is run from Conradh na Gaeilge's Dublin headquarters.
Minister for Finance Brian Cowen says he is "studying in detail" the commissioner's report and has asked his department "as a matter of urgency" to contact other departments and offices to "ascertain what approach they are taking and to consider whether this should be varied".
Mr Cowen said he would arrange for consultation with the staff unions and would "review the policy on the application of bonus marks". The scheme, whereby civil servants who undertook to improve their Irish were given bonus performance ratings, was designed to replace the compulsory Irish rule for civil servants abolished 30 years ago.
At the publication of his annual report in Galway yesterday, Mr Ó Cuirreáin said in effect the State was endorsing "compulsory English" within the Civil Service.
He had "serious reservations" about the Department of Finance's response to his findings. Last year, having become aware of the discrepancy, the department sought to distinguish between the requirement to award such marks in interdepartmental promotions and actual internal promotions.
The language commissioner's office dealt with 415 new complaints last year, according to the report, two-thirds from non-Gaeltacht areas, while 37 per cent of all complaints emanated from Dublin city and county.
Fine Gael spokesman on Gaeltacht affairs Dinny McGinley said: "While Ms Hanafin was attacking the Fine Gael proposals regarding the Irish language, her own department was not even implementing the relevant circulars from the Department of Finance."