Translating plans into Irish is preferable to golden handshakes

CLARE councillor Brian Meaney is quite right to bring to our attention (Irish Examiner, October 15) what he regards as the waste of public monies on the provision of Irish language documentation.

He states eloquently the argument against the translation of documents. You quote him as saying: “Spending this money on translating these plans, that no one reads, makes a mockery of the language. If the (Clare) council is given a choice in the future of spending €10,000 on translating an annual report into Irish or providing €10,000 in grants in improving homes for the elderly or people with disabilities, I know which choice I would make.”

That argument, though sensible, no longer holds water given the extremely generous bonus paid to the HSE chief executive when that service is in a financial crisis or when a generous “retirement” package is paid to the former Ceann Comhairle and still sitting and salaried TD, John O’Donoghue. Given the choice between the payment of such bonuses and golden handshakes and the translation of documents into Irish, I would opt for the latter.