Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Éamon Ó Cuív has said he doubted anyone was suggesting that local authorities with a statutory obligation to translate some official documents into Irish should disregard the law.
The Minster was speaking after it emerged that Clare County Council had spent more than €30,000 on translating three statutory development plans into Irish. No copies of the Irish language version of the documents were ever sold.
The council said it spent the money on translating the documents to comply with the Official Languages Act.
The Minister said the requirement for local authorities to translate some official documents into Irish had been supported by all parties in the Dáil.
Mr Ó Cuív said the legislation required that a small number of documents - policy documents and annual reports - had to be provided in Irish and English.
"If there is a statutory obligation then people have an obligation to adhere to it. If there is not a statutory obligation, the translation then is purely on a voluntary basis. I doubt if anybody is suggesting that anybody disregard the law," he said.
The Minister said that with smaller groups in society, an excuse in the past for not doing something was often that there would not be much use for it.
He said Irish speakers were used to the argument which said "why bother" because only a small number of copies might be needed.
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