CORK County Council has had its ‘knuckles rapped’ for not translating the draft County Development Plan (CDP) into Irish, while also publishing the names of some villages and towns in the Gaeltacht areas in English.
Cllr Gobnait Moynihan (FF) sought a suspension of standing orders at a meeting of the local authority because she said the Council features prominently in a recent report carried out by An Coimisinéir Teanga.
‘Cork County Council has been starring in this annual report on a regular basis and they are in this again as the draft County Development Plan wasn’t published in Irish. Also, areas in the Gaeltacht were named in English not Irish, which is a legal obligation,’ said Cllr Moynihan.
‘It’s clear the Council has broken this Act and it’s not the first time this has happened. The last plan in 2017 had the same issues and the reason why the draft plan is so important is that it’s a working document and they feel that is the most important one.’
Cllr Moynihan did acknowledge that at the time the Council published some of the chapters in Irish, which wasn’t mentioned in the report.
‘What steps are the Council going to take for this to be the last time that we star in the annual report by An Coimisinéir Teanga? What steps will they take to ensure we stop using the wrong names in Gaeltacht areas?’
She asked if the Council could write to each department to ensure that the right spelling is used on names of places in the Gaeltacht.
Cllr Gearóid Murphy (FF) said that Cork County Council should have put out to tender for the Irish translation of the draft sooner and noted that the draft has still not been translated into Irish.
Cllr Sheila O’Callaghan (FF) said this is a ‘rap on the knuckles’ for Cork County Council.
Assistant chief executive Clodagh Henehan said the Council takes its legal obligations very seriously and that the omissions were not ‘done deliberately.’ She said it was very difficult to make both work within the timeframe they had.
Director of Planning Michael Lynch said that the incorrect place names, which they regret, was an error, and he reassured councillors that it won’t happen again.
He said the challenges with translating the draft plan are due to the tight timelines between publishing draft plans and their final implementation, and getting a team of translators in place.
‘It’s extremely difficult to get this done within these timeframes and we want to adhere to the Language Act. We have taken steps to make sure it doesn’t happen again,’ said Mr Lynch.
Cllr Moynihan said the placenames is fixable and that the Council should outline its difficulties in translating the draft document to the two relevant departments.
