Sr. Breege Keenan:

I thank the Deputy. We see the need to have very good interpreting as vital for any member of a migrant community who is unable to talk or express themselves through English. We find that there are a number of interpretive companies but there is absolutely no training. There is nothing worse than to have an interpreter on the phone and know they are probably standing in a shopping centre or walking down the street when one is sitting with a woman who might be the victim of domestic violence. One is trying to support her while at the same time realising that the person on the other end of the phone is walking around the street. It is imperative that we have a training course.

We linked up with somebody in Dublin City University and we have trained our volunteers and sat with them. We also must ask who supports the interpreter.

For example, if I have an interpreter for a woman who has been a victim of domestic violence and she is talking about what happened her with the interpreter explaining it, we end the phone call and the interpreter goes home. With our interpreters, we check in with them afterwards. We have a debriefing to be sure that they are okay and are not carrying home the trauma, being retraumatised by what they have heard. This has come up at many Department meetings. Yesterday I attended a meeting - Mr. Killoran was also there - with the International Protection Office at which we again talked about the quality of interpreters. It has been talked about for years but we now need action. Of course, it should be developed with the universities. For example, NUI Galway has an interpreter course for European languages such as French and Spanish but not for the languages common among migrants.