PROVISIONS to allow for births, marriages, civil partnerships and deaths to be registered in Irish have been hailed "a small but significant step for the Irish language community".
Finance Minister Conor Murphy announced the changes as part of commitments to enable people to access public services in their chosen language as set out in the New Decade New Approach agreement.
The changes officially came into effect on March 11.
Minister Murphy said: “Until now birth, marriage, civil partnerships and death certificates could only be produced in English. The public will now have more choice when it comes to registering births, marriages, civil partnerships and deaths as headings for new registrations can now be in English, Irish, or bi-lingual English and Irish.
"My intention is that the next step would see further parts of the registration process available in Irish. I would like to see further stages moving towards the full registration process being conducted in Irish.
“This is a significant development in the journey towards equality for all our citizens.”
Commenting on the move, Conchúr Ó Muadaigh, Advocacy Manager at Conradh na Gaeilge, said: “This is a small but significant step for the Irish language community. Irish speakers have long since been denied the opportunity to avail of official certificates in the language of their choice.
“This new process will facilitate that choice, for those who wish to access documents in Irish or bilingually. That choice will not effect those who do not wish to use or see Irish on their documents.
“These are very basic services available across these islands. We encourage the Department of Finance to continue this work and to bring through the next stage of the registration processes in Irish as soon as possible.
"Small steps like these should be recognised as inclusive developments recognising the language in law after decades of marginalisation.”
