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THE STATE’S FAILURE to translate legislation which was enacted more than 11 years ago could result in criminal cases across the country being put back or even dismissed.
Speaking to Adhmgaidin on RTÉ Radio na Gaeltachta, solicitor Samantha Geraghty said the government failed in its constitutional obligation to translate the Civil Liability and Courts Act 2004.
Summonses all across the country are issued on foot of this piece of legislation and she said this could have serious repercussions for current cases.
Geraghty brought this matter before Judge Alan Mitchell in Belmullet district court in Mayo and he found that the failure to translate the legislation almost 12 years later is “a clear and obvious breach”, she said.
He said that if the State persists in such a failure, an order (of prohibition) could apply in an appropriate case, ie that there was a chance that we won’t be able to proceed to hearing with some cases. This could affect cases across the country, where solicitors can have cases adjourned until a translation in Irish is available.
Geraghty said that the judge has adjourned all relevant cases which came before Belmullet District Court until the April sitting of the court and he has directed the State to produce the official translation of the Act by the 21 March 2016. If the translation is not available by that date, he will consider legal submissions and there is a danger that these cases may be thrown out.
“There is a constitutional right to have your case defended in Irish without disadvantage and that can’t happen if the law is not available in Irish,” the solicitor said.
“If you go back to the seventies and eighties, when there was very little money in the country, all of the Acts were translated to Irish. Now, when we have far greater resources, there are no translations.”
An Oireachtas spokesperson said the act is currently being translated and will be available shortly.
Surely the minister for the gealteacht could translate in a few hours….. Oh, that’s right..
Give it to the leader of Sinn Féin to do, on second thoughts, better not, we’d like to understand it!
Joey it seems under the leader of ff, fg, it hasn’t got done so giving it to someone else might actually get it done…..
How hard could it be? Just do it.
Stick her into google :P
If I’m not mistaken, in the event of a lack of clarity between English and Irish versions of legislation, the Irish version will always take priority. So the translation needs to be done to a very high standard, & quickly (i.e. expensively)
Of course all this is daft, given the vast majority of the people on the island speak pretty solid English but pretty rubbish Irish, but it’s constitutional (I’m pretty sure)
Frankly Joe, there is a Constitutional obligation upon the legislature, this branch of an Oireachtas, to provide all legislation in the first national language, if there were a conflict between the version in the first language, and that in the second, Bearlach, then the version in the first language must prevail, this is only right since it is, as you hint, the first language of the State, it is frequently breached by public authorities, street signs being a particular example but, if our legislators cannot obey the principle law, an Bunreacht, why should any one else?
Be easier to declare Irish the second and borderline redundant, archaic language it is in reality and stop such frivolous defences being used as an excuse to let criminals dodge a conviction. Too often the argument in court is not about guilt or innocence but about policy, procedure and obscure language-related bureaucracy.
Idf that’s your opinion, you’re still in time for the boat to Holyhead!
Time, methinks for a constitutional referendum on getting rid of all the nonsense and unnecessary public expense in making anything to do with dead duck Irish language mandatory for anyone or any institution. The alternative is just to open the prison gates and close all hospitals because the costs of maintaining this knee jerk to mediaevalism cannot be maintained by the modern Irish state.
Sure what’s new, the government can just add it to the long list of mess ups they have already, can’t wait for the GE, the coalition will be wiped out, it’s goimg to be biblical :)
It was in FF time and did we ever see the opposition aka SF right aise it, no…….
@Paul. If I’m not mistaken, the opposition also consisted of Fine Gael, Labour, The Socialist Party, the Greens and several independents…your point is? (as if we didn’t know)
Mick,the list of untranslated primary legislation is quite long. It is a function of Rannóg an Aistriúcháin, the translation section of the Houses of the Oireachtas, who have control of their own budget. It is not a function of the Government. See http://www.oireachtas.ie/parliament/about/rannoganaistriuchain/
The translation of primary legislation and statutory instruments is tedious and requires considerable research and expert knowledge which is not readily available. “Legal Irish” as it were is almost a different register of the language and is quite different from spoken and written Irish in many respects. The main experts can be found in Rannóg an Aistriúcháin. The main reason Rannóg an Aistriúcháin have not translated Acts is the lack of expensive expert resources in to the sheer volume of work. Many Acts and most statutory instruments remain untranslated. If people want all Acts and statutory instruments translated in a timely fashion then be prepared to spend millions annually for the pleasure of supporting an entirely unnecessary and artificial translation industry which Eamon O Cuiv (the grandson of Éamon de Valera) as the former Minister for the Gaeltacht embedded in law in the Official Languages Act 2003.
We should change the Constitution to reflect reality and not expect the Constitution to reflect the faux reality of Éamon De Valera. As for the District Court judge he will not have the final say. Ultimately this matter will have to be determined in the High Court. There is already case law in this area. However, Rannóg an Aistriúcháin are likely to be able to translate the Act quite speedily if required. They have done so before.
So it seems the letter of the law outweighs the spirit or intent of the law. Another boon for the legal eagles, one in the eye for justice and the protection of citizens. Proof of where the priorities lie in this “republic”.
Is it not time to change the constitution to reflect the fact that 95% of the country’s inhabitants cannot communicate in the Irish language? Is the consititution not a “living” document that serves the people, rather than a bible that subjugates them to the past?
My vote goes to the first candidate in Wicklow to suggest this, it won’t be Brady but maybe Donnelly would go for it.
But this case was brought in that Gaeltacht heartland of belmullet… Isolated, rural as can be, and rare to catch a word of Irish anywhere. Irish as a language would flourish without the forced attitudes of Conrad na Gaelige and only allowing HC3 Irish speakers to become teachers. Make it a subject to learn, not a way of life, and people could embrace it. Otherwise, watch it die of hatred.
Bloody banana Republic
Judges would do better to send a few criminals to jail rather then obsessing if some law has been translated into Irish or not
I’ll tell you what is a banana Republic, the fact a romanian who can’t even speak English let alone irish challenged his drink driving case on the grounds that he never got his reading in irish and won, and as a result, 100s of drink drivers got off their convictions. Again, the law favours he criminals as solicitors get fat cheques courtesy of tax payer in the form of legal aid.
@Cholly the legal aid money is pretty rubbish in alot of cases its one of the reasons so few solicitors or big firms touch legal aid cases.
Nathan, the payments for criminal legal aid are not rubbish by any means. They are quite lucrative. Civil legal aid is another matter.
Source ?
This pro-Irish legislation was part of a (failed) attempt to resurrect the language. It didn’t work, let’s face it. I always wondered how many people in this country are unable to speak English.
Compare this with Sweden, where virtually everyone speak English very well. I once got a great straight faced explanation for why they spoke so well: the Swedish government conducted a detailed study to find out whether it would be easier to teach English to the whole country or Swedish to the rest of the world…
Give it to Micheal D. As President he is scratching his arse most of the day anyway.
That figures legislation that is required is ignored. But legislation that they want quick. Fly it through the dail. # shameful
Whats the Irish for ‘suspended sentence’?
Crocadh!
See this is what is wrong with Ireland. This rubbish. It is legislation, its in English. Everyone in Ireland speaks English ergo get on with it.
Karen but that’s not what the Constitution says, unfortunately!
F**k the constitution, its irrelevant.
This is the kind of nonsense that will ultimately kill Irish, as if it wasn’t on life support already.
It won’t just kill the Irish language it will destroy the nation, locked as it is in some demonic obsession with defining its legitimacy through Nazi force feeding a dead language, supported by an increasingly irrelevant constitution on a supine populace.
If only a referendum was held to let us decide on the constitutional status of the Irish language…
Ireland is an English speaking nation. Irish is an anachronistic kick back to Dev’s 1937constitution and the concept Pearse envisaged. Let’s get real. Irish is a minority language which should have no legal status nor be assumed to be culturally superior to English
Joey Gee, How does it make sense that if legislation is drafted, debated and passed into law in the English language and there is an error in translation into Irish, the erroneous translation takes precedence. We need to amend the constitution
Which constitutional requirement is the judge talking about?
Barry I think the COnstitutional requirements are as follows:
Article 8.1 The Irish language as the national language is the first official language.
Article 25.3
4° Where the President signs the text of a Bill in one only of the official languages, an official translation shall be issued in the other official language.
5° As soon as may be after the signature and promulgation of a Bill as a law, the text of such law which was signed by the President or, where the President has signed the text of such law in each of the official languages, both the signed texts shall be enrolled for record in the office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court, and the text, or both the texts, so enrolled shall be conclusive evidence of the provisions of such law.
6° In case of conflict between the texts of a law enrolled under this section in both the official languages, the text in the national language shall prevail.
Precisely my point above, thank you. It is part of an Bunreacht, as such, it is a Constitutional imperative that it be issued, and respected, by the Court’s and residents here, we do not hold the office of Taoiseach, Supreme Court or Uchtarian in less respect because they are Constitutional positions, our first language must be no different, that of the oppressor though, should.
@Joey “that of the oppressor though, should.” Who said anything about German anyway?
Who though is the oppressor? ,Is it the vilified Brits and their almost universal language or is it the fascistic gaelbores who insist on destroying the right to a modern relevant education to successive generations of our people?
We celebrate 1916 the purpose of which was to achieve a united Ireland, maintain our heritage, language and traditions. Sad day when Irish people refer to our national language as dying and archaic. Wonder what they would have thought of that 100 years ago.
Where have you been for the last 100 years? My parents emigrated in the 1940′s partly because of the effect the Irish language was having on their ability to make a living as unskilled workers.
Oh for God’s sake people… It’s 2016, if criminal speaks Irish give it to him in Irish only! If he speaks English then English alone, this ridiculous rule it must be in both should have been changed years ago. It’s as ridiculous as letting the foreign national accused of drunk driving go free because he didn’t get his reading in Irish!! I’d understand if he couldn’t understand English and asked for it in his language but IRISH??? IRISH??? It makes no sense.. We are the laughing stock of the world sometimes, have we lost all common sense??
Semantic nonsense.
Liathróidí níos mó!
The bankers and their legal friends will never see jail, nor will politicians. They can change some laws over night but when it comes to vested interests of friends, forget it. Irish has cost us €4Billion last year and nobody cares. Even if the biggest unemployment areas are Gaelteacht. Biggest emigration – Gaelteacht. We are a nation of people who don’t speak international languages and keep investing in Irish. It will get worse under SF/IRA
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