Courts Service
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-27
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Jim O'Callaghan (FF), Dublin Bay South

Every day of the week there are a series of cases going on in the Central Criminal Court and in the circuit criminal court for which translation services are required. That is part of the consequence of having a multicultural society in which people from all backgrounds end up as witnesses or accused before the court. Any person who is accused of a criminal offence and who needs the services of a translator will have their own legal solicitor and counsel representing them. I suggest to the Deputy that it will become readily apparent if the translation services being provided are not adequate. What is surprising is that it took the Court of Appeal to intervene in this particular case. However, if there were further issues and ongoing issues with translation services I would expect to see a whole series of convictions being quashed or translators being set aside by the court, but that is not happening.
This was a serious matter, but it was an isolated example and there are measures and protections in place to deal with poor quality in translation services.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-27/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:01+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-27