Language

It's official - Irish is an EU language

Conor Sweeney

14 June 2005

The Irish language overcame Dutch objections to win recognition as an EU official language yesterday, but the next challenge facing the Irish government will be to provide trained interpreters and translators.

The European Commission last night warned that it was the responsibility of Ireland, not the EU, to train people to a sufficient standard to be employable in the European institutions.

The total estimated cost is around €3.5m per year, according to figures agreed by the Government and the EU institutions.

One Irish language expert last night predicted that, because of these difficulties, delays seem inevitable.

"The major challenge is to build up the infrastructure needed, such as training for translators and interpreters," predicted John Walsh of Dublin City University last night.

At a special emergency meeting of EU ambassadors, the Netherlands backed down from its earlier refusal to sanction Irish and Spanish regional languages being given enhanced EU status.

It means that Irish will finally become a working language of the EU more than 30 years after the country first joined.

Although the European taxpayer must pay for the cost of Irish, the Spanish government will pay for the more limited rights afforded to Basque, Catalan and Galician.

The deal to get agreement on Irish was finalised amid a growing mood in the Netherlands and elsewhere to curb all expansion of EU costs following the rejection of the constitutional treaty in the Netherlands two weeks ago.

Lobbying to win over sceptics went on right up until the final deal - Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern said he had engaged in some last-minute cajoling for support at his hotel bar the night before.

"There was a lot of doubt about it up until the last moment," Fianna Fail MEP and Irish language activist Sean O Neachtain said.

"At last, like all other MEPs, I can address the parliament in my own mother tongue," he added.

EU institutions already operate in 20 tongues, and from 2007 Irish will become the 21st official language.

However, all documents and meetings won't have Irish translation and interpretation. Instead, Irish translation will only be introduced for documents covered by co-decision between the European Parliament and EU ministers.

Other documents inside the European Commission or in areas such as foreign policy - where MEPs have no power over new laws - will not be translated. But during debates, MEPs and ministers can request interpretation to be provided through Irish.

Irish people will also be able to claim either English or Irish as a second working language when they apply for EU jobs.

In Brussels there is widespread ignorance about Irish, with few EU officials aware that it is a separate language from English - most assume it's merely a dialect of English.

Although Irish is legally the first constitutional language of Ireland, it was not made a working language when Ireland joined the European Economic Community in 1973