German envoy blames translator for anti-Irish remarks

INEPT translation was the cause of anti-Irish remarks attributed to the German Ambassador, the diplomat claimed yesterday.

Christian Pauls said that had he been Irish he would have taken offence reading the press reports in which he widely disparaged Ireland.

The medical services, traffic management and the Catholic Church were some of the subjects which he found fault with, and he described Ireland as a “coarse place”.

The reports of his address to German industrialists at Clontarf Castle in Dublin, which led to a reprimand from the

Department of Foreign Affairs, made him look like a “complete idiot” — something which he definitely was not, Mr Pauls stressed yesterday.

His said his interpreter had been unable to keep up to speed with what he had been saying and this had resulted in the “mish-mash.”

Yesterday, he said he would not apologise for the remarks as they had been misinterpreted by the translator.

Fine Gael MEP Gay Mitchell, who spoke at the meeting, said the envoy had been “belittling and spiteful” and that about a dozen “appalling” remarks had been made about Ireland.

“If I was a minister and I delivered a similar speech in Germany, the whole diplomatic service... would have been wondering how I got off the leash,” he said.

Mr Pauls said the whole affair was a “storm in a teacup” and “we should get over it”.

He said he would use the same speech in future, but his delivery might be less blunt.