THE North's Irish Language Commissioner Pól Deeds met with fellow language commissioners from around the world at the annual conference of the International Association of Language Commissioners in Galway last week.
This was the Glen Road man's first time attending the conference since he took up his post as Commissioner, and he said it was a good opportunity to hear from fellow commissioners around the world.
"They share their expertise," said Pól. "If a commissioner in a certain jurisdiction is dealing with certain problems they can go to the Association for advice. It's a support group more than anything else."
Neither Mr Deeds nor the Commissioner for Ulster-Scots and Ulster-British Tradition, Lee Reynolds, have full membership of the group. They attended in "observer" roles, which Pól says is due to the structure of the two offices and the power of the First and Deputy First Minister to direct them if they work together, something which he says "won't happen".
"Due to them having that power in law, we were not able to get full membership. We have observer status."
However Deeds says that conference was a valuable experience nonetheless, and that he was still able to participate in discussions and attend events. Indeed, he shared his own experiences on stage alongside the Irish Language Commissioner for the south, Séamas Ó Concheanainn, and Osian Llywelyn from the Office of the Welsh Language Commissioner.
Mr Deeds will be publishing his best-practice standards for public authorities towards the end of this year, and although he did not reveal anything about what those standards may contain, he said he learned some valuable lessons at the conference which he would be implementing in his own work.
"I got a lot of advice from Commissioners I spoke with regarding the complaints process and the monitoring process, as well as the relationship that Language Commissioners around the world have with the governments of their respective countries.
"I want to build on those relationships, and I'd like to use what I learned for the drafting of my own standards and the drafting and development of the monitoring and complaints process."
