07/08/2016
€2,700 a day cost of interpreters for courts
Interpreters for foreign
nationals involved in hearings cost the taxpayer €76,800 a month, according to
documents obtained by the Sunday Independent.
Cebuano and Tagalog, both native
languages to the Philippines, and Chittagonian, an Indo-Aryan language spoken
in parts of Bangladesh, are among the others catered for under the system.
People whose mother tongue is
Creole, developed in colonial European plantation settlements in the 17th and
18th centuries, and Pashto, an Indo-Iranian language spoken mainly in
Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and India, have also been represented in legal
hearings.
Yoruba, used in Nigeria and
Benin, also needed specialist translators.
A trawl through the accounts of
the Courts Service reveals 63 companies were paid €6,233,400 to translate more
than 200 languages in the past five years.
Last year, €921,600 was spent on
interpreting English for defendants and witnesses before the Irish courts. The
provision of such services has been lucrative for a number of companies, with
one earning €731,000 last year.
However, figures show that the
overall cost to the exchequer has reduced significantly in recent years,
falling from €1.6m in 2011.
New figures also show that the
Health Service Executive (HSE) incurs substantial costs employing interpreters
to help non-English-speaking patients.
Accounts show €3,838 is being set
aside daily to provide the service. In 2011, total expenditure amounted to
€1,199,000; last year it was €1,289,600.
Official HSE guidelines state
that using professional translators helps minimise the possibility of
medication errors and treatments not being followed correctly.
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