Donegal County Council
The people of Donegal have the right to conduct their business with the County Council through the medium of Irish.
Spoken Service
You can contact the County Council on (074) 91 53900.
Members of the public will be given a language choice between Irish (Press 1) or English (Press 2) when they call this number.
Written Service (Correspondence & Letters)
All members of the public have the right to send correspondence in Irish, in both written and electronic format, to the County Council. The Council must respond to that correspondence in Irish.
When you, as a member of the public, receive correspondence initiated by Donegal County Council, with information addressed to the general public, the County Council has an obligation to provide that correspondence in bilingual format, both Irish and English.
Application Forms
You have a right to receive any Donegal County Council application form in the Irish language. If you have not been able to access an Irish version of an application form, you can contact our Irish Language Development Officer, using the contact details below, who will record your call/correspondence and seek to ensure prompt availability of the application form, in conjunction with the relevant department of the Council.
For Irish Language service issues, please contact:
Seán Ó Daimhín,
Irish Language Development Officer
Donegal County Council
074 91 72496.
sdaimhin@donegalcoco.ie
Your Constitutional Rights & The Official Languages Act
The public have the right:
- to carry out their business – every aspect of their business – with the state through the medium of Irish and through the medium of Irish alone.
- to receive replies in Irish from public bodies to correspondence by post or by email written in Irish.
- to expect that public bodies will send information to the public in general in Irish or bilingually
- to expect that public bodies will publish certain key documents (including Acts of the Oireachtas), confirmed in the legislation, in Irish and English.
- to conduct his/her business before the Houses of the Oireachtas through Irish (as well as Oireachtas committees, sub-committees and/or joint committees).
- to use Irish in any court or in any business with any court.
- to avail of all services in Irish agreed by public bodies in language schemes. The provisions of specific schemes relating to Gaeltacht areas are included here.
If your language rights have been denied to you, you can get advice from, or submit a formal complaint to, the Irish Language Commissioner here: Get in touch with the Irish Language Commissioner
