Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Question 34: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform his views on whether it is safe to rely on guarantees of a private company alone in relation to the standard and quality of interpreters it may provide to An Garda Síochána; and if he will introduce a register or accredited public service interpreters for use by the Garda, the courts and tribunals. [46621/08]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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Since the mid 1990s Ireland had significant rates of net inward migration. The immigrant population comprises United Kingdom nationals who have been coming here for many years, nationals of European Economic Area countries who have in large part free movement entitlements, and persons from other countries. Obviously the language needs of such persons vary greatly depending on their individual circumstances. Because the provision of public services to immigrants is generally handled as part of the mainstream provision of service this poses challenges for all public service agencies — not just the Garda Siochana.

To that end, the Office of the Minister for Integration recently commissioned research in relation to interpreting and translating services. The research was published as a Report entitled "Developing Quality, Cost Effective Interpreting and Translation Services in Ireland" on 6 October 2008 and is available on The National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism website, www.nccri.ie

The recommendations made include a recommendation that a register of accredited practitioners be developed which Government service providers would use. This recommendation and the other recommendations in the report will be considered by a sub-group of the Cross Departmental Group on Integration which was recently established by the Minister for Integration, Mr. Conor Lenihan. The Cross Departmental Group comprises senior civil servants from relevant Departments.

For its part, and to enable it to meet its current requirements, the Garda Síochána is currently undertaking an EU based procurement to put in place contracts for the provision of interpretation and translation services for the Force. As part of this process, emphasis has been placed on ensuring that appropriate quality assurance mechanisms are in place both in the initial selection of the service providers and in the ongoing monitoring of standards over the duration of the contracts. It is expected, subject to the finalisation of contracts, that the new services will be in place in the first quarter of next year.