Regulatory Bodies
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-10
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Conor Sheehan (LAB), Limerick City

I am disappointed by that response. The Minister of State referred to a directive of the European Parliament that compels member states to take concrete measures to ensure interpretation and translation provided meets the necessary quality standards. I have presented an example of where that did not happen. There is a line in the directive that member states must endeavour to establish registers of interpreters and translators. This is something that is best practice, which professional linguists and people such as Professor Mary Phelan in DCU have been calling for for decades. We need to move away from the concept that any bilingual person can be a competent interpreter. We need to move away from outsourcing because there is an issue with quality control. We need to have accredited, university-level courses for legal interpreters. We need a regulatory body and a register. We need for longer trials to have two competent interpreters. The UK has a new qualifications framework and a contract for spoken language services that was tendered in autumn 2024. We need to follow suit.
It is not just me who is saying this. People who are experts in in this field are saying it because we need to develop a framework for formal accreditation and a national register for spoken language interpreters in healthcare and judicial settings. There have been examples where people have gone into hospital and people have used Google Translate. It primarily concerns migrant healthcare. There is a report with recommendations. They just need to be implemented.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-10/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:36+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-10