Seanad Report: It would be unrealistic to expect concrete outcomes during the Irish EU presidency to boost the status of the Irish language within the EU and its institutions, Mr Tom Kitt, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, said.
He was speaking on an all-party motion which was passed. It called on the Government to use the presidency and the fact that the accession of new EU members "will result in a recognition of additional languages in the Union", and to have "the Irish language recognised as an official working language of the EU and its institutions".
Mr Kitt said he believed that by setting realistic goals and by demonstrating their practical purposes, we could make the most credible case for the enhancing of the status of the Irish language in the EU.
The Government remained committed to monitoring developments with a view to availing of any appropriate opportunity which might arise to enhance the status of Irish in the EU.
"The status of the Irish language in the EU is quite unique.
"Clearly it is not one of the 11 official and working languages of the institutions. On the other hand, the provision made for the publication of the treaties in an authentic Irish language version confers a particular Union status which sets Irish part from, for example, Luxembourgish, which has no Union status."
Mr Kitt said the European Commission had recommended that each of the national languages of the 10 accession countries be made an official and working language.
With the accession of the new member-states, an additional nine languages would be recognised as official and working languages on May 1st.
Any alteration in the official status of the Irish language or any other language, other than the provisions resulting directly from the enlargement negotiations, would have to come about through an amendment to Regulation 1/1958 using the normal procedures provided in the EC Treaty. This would include a Commission proposal to this effect.
Most recently, the Government had taken steps to enhance the standing of the Irish language in the context of the reform of staff regulations for EU officials.
Under revised staff regulations due to be agreed shortly, and as a result of an initiative by Ireland, a new requirement for officials to show before their first promotion the ability to work in a third language extended not only to official and working languages but also to Irish.
"In this regard, Irish is the only language that is not an official and working language which will be taken into account.
"This will mean that officials who reach the required standard in Irish can directly benefit in terms of promotion prospects, etc."