Backlog of 500 laws to take three years to translate into Irish

Aengus Ó Snodaigh

Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh said that Irish had always been seen as an “afterthought”, but said the absence of translation raises legal issues, the Irish Examiner reports.

The law provides that acts must be translated “as soon as practicable”, but he said “this is a smokescreen, and this is having an impact on court cases, where you have a legal right to access the law which is being used in your favour or against you in your chosen language”.

“Unless the Oireachtas makes this change, a murderer could be let free because the legislation needed to convict them could not be found in Irish.”

Translation of legislation, as required under the Constitution, is provided by Rannóg an Aistriúcháin.

A spokesperson for the Oireachtas said: “An external capacity review of An Rannóg was undertaken in 2018, and a five-year strategic plan to carry out the recommendations is now being implemented, with the primary objective of clearing the historic arrears by July 2024.”