About us
The Office of the Irish Language Commissioner was provided for in the Identity and Language (Northern Ireland) Act 2022 (‘the Act’) and was established in November 2025.
The Act provides official recognition of the status of the Irish language in Northern Ireland, by providing for:
- the appointment of the Irish language Commissioner,
- the development of standards of best practice relating to the use of the Irish language by public authorities, and
- a requirement upon public authorities to have due regard to the standards.
The Act also acknowledges other ways that the Irish language is given official recognition, for example through the NI Executive’s commitment to adopt a strategy to enhance and protect the development of the Irish language, through the work of the North-South Language Body (Foras na Gaeilge) and through provision relating to Irish-medium education.
The principal aim of the Irish language Commissioner is to enhance and protect the use of the Irish language by public authorities in the provision of services to the public or a section of the public in Northern Ireland.
Accordingly, the Commissioner will be required to prepare, monitor and promote best practice standards for the use of the Irish language in the provision of services (‘the standards’) and public authorities will be required to have due regard to those standards.
The Act also makes provision for a complaints procedure, whereby the Commissioner must investigate complaints from members of the public who feel that a public authority has failed to comply with its obligation to have due regard to the standards.
Once published, the standards will be made widely available and a comprehensive complaints procedure will be put in place.
The Irish Language Commissioner, Pól Deeds
Pól Deeds was appointed as the first Irish Language Commissioner for Northern Ireland in 2025 by the First and deputy First Ministers.
Pól previously worked as CEO of An Droichead, an Irish language organisation that promotes the development of Irish language and culture in south Belfast, and more recently as Deputy Chief Executive of Foras Na Gaeilge, the cross-border body responsible for the promotion of the Irish language throughout the island of Ireland.
Contact us
Irish Language Commissioner
Office of the Irish Language Commissioner
Equality House
Shaftesbury Square
Belfast
BT2 7DP
info@coimisineir.org
This website is currently under construction. Upon completion, it will host a library of useful sources on minority language issues. For now, please see the following fundamental texts: