Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 3 July 2012
485 Deputy John Deasy asked the Minister for Justice and Equality if he will provide details of the total expenditure by his Department on providing services through the Irish language in each of the past five years. [31632/12]
View answerI wish to advise the Deputy that the costs of providing services through Irish are met from my Department's Administrative Budget and cannot readily be distinguished from the cost of providing services generally. Accordingly the information sought by the Deputy could not be compiled without the application of a disproportionate amount of staff-time and resources.
I can also inform the Deputy that while my Department does engage outside translators on occasion, as much translation work as possible is undertaken by an in-house translator and other staff members who are proficient in Irish. Examples of documents translated by Departmental staff include Rules of Court, Statutory Instruments, forms, website pages, correspondence, etc.
I can further inform the Deputy that, in common with other categories of expenditure, my Department seeks to provide Irish language services with an eye to securing value for money. To illustrate this, the Deputy may wish to note that since February 2003 my Department has been involved in a major on-going Irish language project, the translation of the Rules of Court. To facilitate the efficient and effective completion of this project my Department has employed an in-house translator principally to oversee and carry out the translations of these Rules. The Irish translations of the District Court Rules, 1997 and the Circuit Court Rules, 2001 have been published and work is on-going in relation to the preparation for publication of the translation of Rules of the Superior Courts, 1986. By engaging an in-house translator for this purpose my Department estimates that it has made significant savings on this project.
I would also like to point out that translation costs incurred are but one part of the total cost to my Department of providing services through Irish. Costs, other than translation costs, are incurred when replies are prepared to Parliamentary Questions and letters, speaking and briefing material is prepared for Dáil and Seanad debates, advertisements are drafted and the array of documents which originate from my Department are drafted — for example, strategy statements, annual reports, language schemes, forms, Statutory Instruments and web pages. Details of all these inputs and their associated costs are not recorded separately by my Department. Consequently, the costs of providing services through Irish cannot readily be distinguished from the cost of providing services generally.
