This article is from page 14 of the 2006-02-21 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 14 JPG
CLARE County Council has spent €30,250 on translating three statutory development plans into Irish – and not sold a single copy.
The spend was this week described as “a wanton waste of taxpayer’s money” by Councillor Brian Meaney (GP).
However, Irish language enthusiast, Cllr Tom Prendeville (FF) said: “It is right and proper that the council translate these documents into Irish. The €30,250 spent on the translation doesn’t matter a whit as an economic price should not be placed on celebrating our Irish language and culture.”
Arising from the coming into law of the Official Languages Act, the council is bound by law to translate all published documents into Irish.
Cllr Meaney said: “This outcome is very poor for the promotion of Irish and money could be spent on Irish in a much more positive and proactive way.
“There is something of a joke factor entering into this with the massive spend on the documents and not one copy sold.
“This is taking place as a result of a whim of Minister Eamon O’Cuiv and is very counterproductive towards the promotion of Irish.
“If this return occurred in the private sector, it wouldn’t be tolerated. There are community groups across the county crying out for money and what could they do with €30,250?
“The Ministerial diktat by Minister O’Cuiv has been accompanied by no additional funding and the council has to fund the translation of these plans from their own resources.
“This part of the Official Languages Act needed to be overhauled as this wasteful spend is being repeated across the country.”
However, Cllr Prendeville said: “The Council is obliged under the provisions of the Official Languages Act to translate these documents. It is most important that this work is carried out, otherwise the Council would found to be in breach.”
The council’s Director for Planning, Bernadette Kinsella confirmed that in compliance with legal requirements, the council made the spend on the translation of the County Development Plan 2005, the North Clare Local Area Plan 2005 and the East Clare Local Area Plan 2005.
“Five copies of each of these plans were printed in Irish. To date, no copy has been sold to the general public in Irish. Approximately 200 copies of the English versions have been purchased. The cost of meeting its requirements under the Official Languages Act has to be met from the annual revenue budget of the council.”