Departmental Priorities

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 3 October 2023

Tuesday, 3 October 2023

Questions (540)

Neasa Hourigan

Question:

540. Deputy Neasa Hourigan asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the Government’s plans to provide for regulation of the translation and interpreting sectors and establish industry standards, to ensure interpreters who work in hospitals, in international protection, in Garda stations, in the courts, and so on, have appropriate training in how to interpret in those particular circumstances; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42464/23]

Written answers

Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth

Linguistic diversity in Ireland continues to grow. The 2022 census shows that there has been a 23% increase since 2016 in people usually resident in Ireland who spoke a language other than English or Irish at home . Amongst the linguistically diverse population, there are varying degrees of English language proficiency, and language barriers can be an issue when interacting with public services.

It is important that everyone is facilitated to access public services and that people are not disadvantaged by language barriers. This requires the provision of high quality translation and interpretation services. Under the mainstreaming approach to integration, each statutory service is responsible for providing translation and interpretation supports where required. Work is underway to develop a successor to the Migrant Integration Strategy; language supports and services will be reviewed as part of this work.