For the purposes of running a foreign policy website I have, drawing on information from the EU Council, done an estimate of the amount of texts that will actually be translated into Irish

Only a limited amount of EU legal instruments will be translated into Irish despite the fanfare of Irish becoming an “official” EU language.

A spokesperson for the Council has confirmed to me that regulation number 920/2005 only covers regulations adopted by co-decision. This means that laws adopted outside of co-decision will not be translated and importantly directives (one of the main sources of EU law), resolutions and decisions will not be translated.

It is extremely difficult to estimate the number of legal instruments that would be subject to translation. The Council secretariat is very reluctant to do so but subject to qualification says the relevant acts in the second half of last year would have been 1/3 and about ˝ would be estimated to be eligible this year. Of course this doesn’t allow for acts not covered by co-decision and other documents such as those from the European Court of Justice.

Therefore my estimate based on the above is that only about 20% of EU laws and legal documents will be translated into Irish.

The Council response is on the website

Michael Mc Loughlin
www.foreignpolicy.ie