Irish language law costs council €100,000 for planning blueprints
This is despite extremely low demand for translated council publications in the past.
The council, like all State and semi-State bodies, is obliged to publish some official documents in Irish as well as English.
The lowest tender made to the council was €127 per 1,000 words.
While officials said they had no choice but to provide translations, privately they are understood to be fuming at the cost — which is equivalent of two fully equipped children’s playgrounds.
The council, which cannot recover the cost from central Government, confirmed yesterday that under the Official Languages Act it was obliged to translate 10 Local Area Plans (LAPs) for larger towns and three Special Area Plans (SAPs), which focus on growth along the proposed new commuter rail network at Blarney, Carrigtwohill and Midleton.
Under the act, local authorities are not obliged to translate all official documents into Irish, but in the case of planning blueprints it is required.
Cllr Tim Lombard said he was dismayed at the delay in publishing the plans and also the substantial cost involved for translation, especially as in the past it has been shown there is very little demand for such publications.
This is the first time the council has been obliged to publish its LAPs and SAPs in Irish. But it has previously published its annual reports in Irish. A council spokeswoman said that last year 700 copies of the annual report were printed and out of these 20 were published in Irish. The translation cost was €1,870.
“Approximately half of the 20 copies were taken up. But it is difficult to ascertain how many of these were requested by members of the public as some would have been distributed to the county library and staff library for use there,” the spokeswoman said.
The English version of the 13 plans have just been published by the council and can be viewed at County Hall, divisional offices and in public libraries. However, the Irish version won’t be available for a few weeks. When finalised it will also be put on the council’s website www.corkcoco.ie.
Mr Lombard was also critical of the length of time it took to publish the plans, which were finalised nearly a year ago.
“The information in the Local Area Plans will have a major effect on communities for the next six years. It is amazing that this important information takes 12 months to be published. This should have been made available much faster.
“It is ridiculous that taxpayers and ratepayers are ultimately going to end up paying for the translations as no extra funding for translation has been allocated from the Department of Environment and Local Government,” he added.
