The use now of 167 languages in the Republic is a big challenge for the health, education and justice systems. Carl O'Brien reports

Deo Ladislas Ndakengerwa (36), an interpreter from Rwanda, spends most of his day trying to clear up confusion between hospital staff and non-English speaking patients. These days, he's in greater demand than ever.

"It's very frustrating for both patients and doctors," says Longford-based Ndakengerwa, who speaks nine languages and provides most of his interpreting services in the health sector.

He lists case after case involving a range of problems he comes across on a daily basis, from people taking the wrong tablets or children being asked to translate for their parents, to doctors misunderstanding the symptoms of patients. The consequences can range from the serious to the not-so-serious.

"A Cameroon woman, for example, was telling the doctor in French that she couldn't stop running. The doctor was getting more angry, asking why was that a problem. He later realised 'running' was a local way of saying she had diarrhoea," he says, smiling, before making a more serious point.

"For the patient, they don't understand and can't communicate what's wrong with them. For the staff, it's a waste of their time and makes their job more difficult."

Such frustration and confusion isn't confined to the health sector. A range of public services are only beginning to try to grapple with the challenges of a rapidly changing society in which - according to research released recently at the National University of Ireland Maynooth - around 167 languages are now being used.

For a country that has had a tortuous time trying to deal with the demands of just Irish and English, the prospect of a polyglot population with dozens of languages seems a dizzying task beyond the bounds of policy-makers.

Our initial efforts aren't encouraging. While there has been progress in some areas, such as this month's census which will be translated into 11 foreign languages, most linguists agree that services aimed at our increasingly multilingual community are haphazard, disorganised and lack any real sense of planning for the future.

For starters, there are no standards for translation in the public service at all. No single agency has responsibility for identifying the language needs of the country. There is just one proper in-service course in the country for teachers who wish to teach English as a foreign language.

It's as if Ireland's linguistic diversity seems to be building up in the form of a leaning tower of Babel, precariously balanced, ready to topple over at any minute.

"Our concern is that the lack of any policy on this in places like the health service is potentially opening us up to legal action in the future," says Philip Watt, of the State advisory body the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism (NCCRI). "Piecemeal services are being provided and there's a lack of joined-up policy in the area."

Northern Ireland has taken a number of progressive steps to deal with the emerging needs of ethnic groups. The North's Health and Social Services Interpreting Project, for instance, was established two years ago by local authorities to improve access to services for members of minority ethnic communities.

It has established training for interpreters, heightened awareness of linguistic needs among health staff and provided a translation service through 25 languages via 125 interpreters. The service provides a round-the-clock service that is free of charge to patients.

"The situation was similar to what it is in [ the Republic of] Ireland," says Justyna McCabe, the group's training and development officer. "We are far better organised in the North now, as a result of the centre."

The need for such a body in the South is clear, although so far such an organisation has just been talked about.

While the need for interpreters is obvious, a different set of challenges faces the education system in catering to the needs of non-English speakers.

An estimated 6,000 children have entered the primary education system in recent years without any English, according to new research, with concentrations of foreign students in some schools as high as 50 per cent.

The Department of Education has been allocating full-time temporary language support teachers to schools, depending on the numbers with English-language difficulties.

Schools that have 14 or more non-English-speaking non-national pupils enrolled are automatically entitled to a full-time temporary language support teacher for up to two years. Schools with 28 or more such pupils are entitled to two full-time temporary language support teachers, but the figure is capped at three teachers.

For principals such as Ann Ryan of St Mark's National School in Springfield, Tallaght, where there are more than 180 international students out of a total of 525, this is causing immense difficulties.

"The reality is tough on a teacher who has a class of 30 children, and 10 of them don't speak English as their first language," says Ryan.

The Department of Education says it is in the process of a comprehensive survey of the needs of international students across primary and secondary level, while a blueprint on the future development of services for immigrant children is expected later this year.

Many linguists, however, are worried about the education system's ability to cope to produce enough quality interpreters or teachers skilled in teaching English as a foreign language.

There is just one fully accredited third-level course, for example, offering the teaching of English as a foreign language, while more generally there is widespread unease at the lack of qualifications necessary.

"Authorities are throwing a lot of money at agencies, but they're not concerned about standards," says Mary Phelan, a lecturer at Dublin City University's school of applied language and intercultural studies.

"They're pretending to be socially inclusive in doing so, but it's just a sticking-plaster solution."

In the justice area, there are also concerns at whether interpreters are trained sufficiently to be able to translate a world of often arcane legal terminology.

The issue wasn't particularly helped by comments from a district court judge last year, Judge John Neilan, who questioned the use of taxpayers' money to provide interpreters for defendants from what he called the Eastern bloc.

The Courts Service - which diplomatically declined to comment on the judge's comments - says it is providing services in up to 120 languages and dialects.

The standard of translation and interpretation is another issue, however. A story is told by linguistic experts - whether apocryphal or not - about a major translation firm resorting to checking ethnic shops and restaurants on Moore Street and Parnell Street in the search for someone to offer interpretation services for a lesser-spoken language.

The immediate negative consequences of failing to deal with the needs of non-English speakers are easy enough to spot: misdiagnoses in hospitals, poor education standards among children and a lack of awareness of basic rights in the criminal justice system. But it is the sense of isolation and exclusion among foreign nationals in the longer term that is the real reason to be worried.

Deo Ladislas Ndakengerwa says it is very easy for foreign nationals to feel unwelcome or unwanted when it comes to such basic services and could lead some foreign communities to turn away from Irish society.

Another change Ndakengerwa hopes he'll see is the ending of what he regards as a largely dismissive attitude toward interpreters across State services.

"Not only are interpreters being asked to translate, but in cases like social work, they are being asked to be investigators or they are asked about their opinion on a person's situation," he says. "This is very unacceptable. There is no training of staff on how to use interpreters. Somehow they are seen as people who aren't really professional, who aren't trained, and are not really respected. That will have to change, along with many other things."