State pays €1.8m to translate reports into Irish
Tuesday October 27 2009
THE translation of rarely-read reports into Irish by State agencies and councils cost the taxpayer nearly €1.8m last year, an investigation by the Irish Independent reveals.
The majority of the Irish version of these reports and documents were not bought by members of the public.
Under the law, public bodies are obliged to translate their material into Irish -- even in cases where there is no demand for it.
But opposition parties say the costs can't be afforded and the money could be spent in different ways providing a greater benefit to the promotion of the Irish language.
The State agencies spent €1,150,682, while the local authorities spent €600,685.81 on these translations last year, the first major investigation into the costs shows.
And this doesn't include the additional spend by Government departments in translating their documents. Many of the local authorities and State agencies do not have a specific budget for translations and were unable to estimate their costs for this year.
However, its predicted costs may increase following the introduction of new regulations on signage last March.
State agencies and public bodies are obliged to translate English versions of certain core documents into Irish under Section 10 of the Official Languages Act 2003, which was signed into law on July 14, 2003.
Damage
These include any document setting out public policy proposals, any annual report, any audited accounts or financial statement, any statement of strategy prepared under Section 5 of the Public Service Management Act 1997 and any document that is considered as being of major public importance.
Fine Gael Gaeltacht Affairs spokesman Michael Ring last night said "we can't afford this in the current economic climate".
"It's costing a small fortune and doing damage to the Irish language. That money could be put to better use to promote the language.
"The minister should issue a directive to put these reports on websites only and not have to publish them.
Labour's spokesman on the Irish language, Brian O'Shea, said "we need to locate all the spend on Irish language and look at what it seeks to achieve".
"Any money spent on the Irish language should be money that would contribute to the greater use of the language. We have to exercise common sense on all these areas," he said.
But Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Minister Éamon Ó Cuív defended his policy. He said it is "a fundamental right of the Irish speakers of this country to get certain basic documents in Irish and to get basic services through Irish".
He said the Official Languages Act 2003 "limits the State's obligation to translate documents" and without it, "the State could be held legally obliged to translate every single document produced".
He urged public bodies to publish documents and reports in electronic format only wherever possible.
Meath County Council -- which is a Gaeltacht area -- reported the highest spend on Irish translation costs for 2008 at €88,000, followed by Galway County Council and Kerry County Council at €72,538.22 and €57,000 respectively.
- Denise Clarke
Irish Independent
