Lost in translation

Over 100 qualified Irish-Language Translators have reacted angrily to Foras na Gaeilge cancelling their “Séala” – the translation recognition certificate which qualifies them to tender for State translation work.

In a statement issued yesterday, the group say they received a short email from National University of Ireland Galway, on behalf of Foras na Gaeilge who ran their course, informing them of the cancellation of the qualification. They were told that all translators awarded Séala qualifications before 2013 would have their qualifications removed while candidates who were awarded qualifications in 2013 would remain permanently accredited. The statement said that all other translators on the panel would have to resit an examination if they succeeded in their application for a place in the examination centre.

A group of translators who sat their examinations before 2013 have come together as, Na hAistritheoirí Cáilithe (The Qualified Translators). They say their livelihoods are threatened as a result of the change and have issued a statement refuting the right of Foras na Gaeilge to rescind “correctly awarded legal qualifications”. They write that “no official documentation, regulations or the awarded certificate for the Séala stated that the awarded Séala recognition was temporary, provisional or subject to withdrawal or invalidation. The Aistritheoirí Cáilithe state that their examinations from 2006, when the process was initially instituted, were set and corrected by the Translation Section of the Houses of the Oireachtas, which is recognised as the best qualified and most professional body of translators in the translation sector”.

They are refusing to give up their qualifications and say that their withdrawal is “unprecedented” and that they “abhor the treatment of forwarding a brief email on a Friday evening, destroying … the qualifications and livelihood of graduates. Should Foras na Gaeilge succeed, Ireland would be left without a professionally recognised panel of Irish-language translators. This would also threaten the envisaged review of the legal status of the Irish language in the European Union. Ireland received a derogation from the European Union, to be reviewed, when we could provide an adequate number of professionally qualified translators”.

In a statement in Irish given to The Irish Times on Thursday evening, Foras na Gaeilge said that it had been agreed between Foras na Gaeilge, the Dept of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure that "the validity of the Séala would expire by the end of 2014 in the case of people who had achieved the accreditation before 2013" and that this was done in the interests of "good practice".

However, Foras na Gaeilge was now extending the Séala until the end of 2015 at the “request of some translators because they could not take the exam this year. No one who succeeds in earning the Séala would have to undertake it again”.

The statement said that there were 158 accreidted translators and that the Séala was not a “national state qualification” (“cáilíocht náisiúnta Stáit”) but a statement of competence from Foras na Gaeilge (“is ráiteas inniúlachta Fhoras na Gaeilge é”) . Foras na Gaeilge were allowed to ask for re-accreditation and that translators were aware of this from the beginning.

Foras na Gaeilge has told translators that they would have the opportunity this year and next to re-accredit and that they had written to the translators looking for their suggestions as to how to ensure and protect the high standard of the Séala.

Speaking on Adhmhaidin on RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta this morning, one translator described the situation as a "mess" and suggested that some translators may boycott any new exam.