Council: ‘We got that wrong’

Cork County Council officials have apologised for failing to fulfil their legal obligation to fully translate the latest draft of the County Development Plan (CDP).

Officials also apologised for using English versions of place names in Cork’s Gaeltacht areas throughout the draft plan.

The apology came at Monday’s meeting of Cork County Council where Fianna Fáil Cllr Gobnait Moynihan referred to Language Commissioner Rónán Ó Domhnaill’s annual report which was published last week.

The report found Cork County Council to be in breach of the Acht na dTeangacha Oifigiúla (Official Languages Act). Cllr Moynihan pointed out this is not the first time council had featured in a Language Commissioner’s annual report, with the exact same breaches having been recorded in the 2017 Draft CDP.

Cllr Moynihan said it is a “small ask” to have the correct place names used in Gaeltacht areas and asked what steps the council was going to take to ensure it doesn’t feature in the Language Commissioner’s next report.

Responding to the councillor, Director of Planning Michael Lynch said the council “didn’t want to be in this position” and it had worked very closely with the Language Commissioner’s office throughout the process of developing the Cork County CDP.

“On place names, we got that wrong. That was an error and that won't happen again,” said Mr Lynch.

Regarding the translation of the document into Irish, Mr Lynch said the short timeline available in which to tender the considerable undertaking to translators made it “extremely difficult” to achieve.

He continued: “It's a very tight timeline even to make the plan. To get it translated is an added layer of complexity, something that we did try to do, and we have explained our position to the commissioner.

“Come the next development plan, we hope that there is provision that allows us to satisfy the requirement.”

The council’s Assistant Chief Executive Clodagh Henehen said any breaches of legislation were “not done deliberately or with any disregard or the Irish language of for the legislation”.