New legislation requiring public bodies to provide a substantial amount of its documents in Irish is to cost local authorities over €7.5 million annually to implement, according to initial estimates.
It has emerged the legislation, introduced earlier this year will require a wide range of items, including cheques and temporary road signs to be produced in Irish and English.
It had previously been thought that the Official Languages Act, which came into force earlier this year, would be limited to major reports of public bodies and ensuring that people be able to do business with the State and public bodies in Irish.
However, a clause in the Act, requiring that all public notices, electronic or otherwise, must be issued in both Irish and English, has meant that the legislation has implications for a host of other documents and items.
The legislation will apply to every public body and organisation in the country, including councils, health authorities, and State development agencies.
While many larger bodies have well-developed Irish language programmes, the Act will also apply to many smaller organisations which face considerable translation and administration costs to implement the requirements of the Act .
In relation to local councils, the Local Government Management Services Board has collated figures which suggest the initial implementation of the Bill will cost the councils €9.3 million, and additional 7.5 million per anum. According to the board, most of the additional costs arise from extra advertising and translation costs.
Privately, managers of smaller bodies with a limited Irish language service have expressed concern about the potential cost to their organisations .
Final guidelines on how different items should be treated have yet to be issued by the Department of Rural, Community and Gaeltacht Affairs, but local authorities have already been given initial guidelines about what is covered by the Act.
Annual reports and other major publications have to be published in Irish from last month, while regulations on other printed and electronic publications come into force early next year. According to the Irish Development Unit of Dublin City Council, which is overseeing the implementation of the Act in the local authority, it has been advised that a wide range of items will have to be bilingual .
This includes all cheques issued by Dublin City Council and signage on its buildings.
All road signage, including temporary roadworks, will also have to be in Irish, as will any public circular, such as water stoppage notices, issued by a public body.Apart from translation costs, which average €14.50 per 100 words, the most significant additional spending requirement will be in advertising.