18 Apr 2024, 14:00
The Ceann Comhairle, Seán Ó Fearghaíl TD, today launched the updated Achtanna.ie website, a searchable database of enacted versions and official translations of the Acts of the Oireachtas from 1922 to the present day.
The updated website was developed in conjunction with Rannóg an Aistriúcháin, the Irish language translation service of the Oireachtas. The database offers a valuable resource for politicians and their staff, legal translators, lawyers, students and the general public.
The Ceann Comhairle said: “Legislation passed by the Irish State has been published in English and Irish since 1922. This means that the State has now published more than 100 years of Irish language legislation, which is quite significant.
“It is important that that this legislation is available to the citizen, the legal profession, public representatives and any citizen who wants to read the laws of Ireland in either of the two official languages. Therefore, the Acts and their official translations must be made available to the public in a way that is easy to access, read and search.
“With this understanding of the need to give citizens easy access to the Acts and official translations, the Houses of the Oireachtas Service decided, more than 20 years ago, to use the internet and modern technology to provide electronic access to primary legislation. We wanted to ensure that primary legislation and official translations would no longer be available only in published volumes in offices or libraries, but that all citizens would have quick access to them online.
“Great progress has been made in technology in recent years and new possibilities have emerged since the initial launch of Achtanna.ie in 2003.
“The State has made significant progress, in recent years, in terms of providing information and support to those who wish to conduct their business through the medium of Irish, and Achtanna.ie is a particular support for these citizens.”
“There is no other facility that presents the complete versions of primary legislation, and the official translations thereof, in an aggregated manner. In fact, one of our major objectives with this site is that the contextual aggregated presentation will help lawyers, translators, teachers and tutors, journalists and others in the work they do through the medium of Irish.
“Achtanna.ie is a valuable product of the Houses of the Oireachtas Service. It is another step forward in the field of legislation, technology and the Irish language itself. I commend the great work done by Rannóg an Aistriúcháin (the Translation Section) and the Information Technology Unit. I hope that you will make full use of the site, and I wish Achtanna.ie and its users every success.”
Vivian Uíbh Eachach, Chief Translator, said: “Rannóg an Aistriúcháin is very pleased that Achtanna.ie has been upgraded and updated. The legislation website is a great support to those who require access to primary legislation and to the official translations of that legislation. A facility has been established, as part of the development, to update the material in the site continuously through the addition of new Acts and new official translations over time. It is the intention of Rannóg an Aistriúcháin that Achtanna.ie will be central from now on in presenting legislation to the public bilingually.”
This new version of Achtanna.ie contains new functionalities such as a search function that will accept text in either language, while search results in English will also inform the user if there is an Irish version of the Act containing the same phrase or word.
The home page brings the user to either the Irish or English language version of the website and both language versions are linked, enabling the user to move instantly from one language version to the other.
The browsing page contains a list of Acts of the Oireachtas. By clicking on the year the user sees a list of Acts for that year. A advanced search function allows the user to find specific information, i.e. a word or phrase in long title/short title/section title/word or phrases in all Acts.
A ‘split screen’ function will show the Irish and English versions of an Act side by side and Irish language ‘Official Translations’ are uploaded on a continuous basis. The split screen page also contains GA/EN links to bring the user directly to the article/section of the Act in the other language.