Ireland’s Government has accepted legislation that will ensure 20 per cent of new recruits to the Public Service will be fluent in the Irish language by the end of 2030.
Minister for the Gaeltacht (Irish-speaking regions), Jack Chambers announced amendments to the Irish Language Act which also ensured that 20 per cent of Public Service advertising would be in Irish and five per cent of its advertising would run in Irish language media.
The Government first announced a review of the Irish Language Act 10 years ago, it is envisaged that the amendments will finally be enacted by Parliament after the summer break.
Meanwhile, the Health Service Executive (HSE) annual report has revealed that one person, employed as a consultant, received more than €640,000 ($A1 million) in total payments last year.
The person concerned is understood to be a hospital consultant who carried out a significant amount of locum cover.
This kind of work can more than double the basic salary for the position before the inclusion of other potential payments such as clinical allowances or on-call fees.
Payments to consultants cover earnings only from the public health system, it is not known whether the doctors concerned have any contractual rights to treat fee-paying patients or whether they engage in any form of private practice.
The HSE report says a total of 23,412 of its employees received total payments in excess of €60,000 ($A95,000) last year.
The totals would include basic pay, allowances, overtime, night duty, weekends, on-call and arrears, but exclude employer social insurance and pension costs.
Dublin, 10 July 2021
