Madam, - The topic of interpreters has come up a number of times in recent weeks. The HSE intercultural strategy is to recommend the establishment of a national interpreting service using trained, accredited interpreters (The Irish Times, December 11th).
While this initiative is somewhat aspirational and lacking in detail, we welcome it as a step in the right direction.
The HSE spent €750,000 on interpreting in 2006. We believe it would need to spend about €10 million to provide a proper service to patients who are not proficient in English. At present children, family members, friends, medical staff, catering staff, porters and security guards regularly act as interpreters in hospitals. Many have insufficient English for this task. We believe that patients should have access to properly trained and tested interpreters.
We agree with the Irish Refugee Council (December 27th) that asylum-seekers should also have access to accredited interpreters at all stages of the asylum process. The Legal Aid Board (January 4th) says that the Refugee Legal Service has procedures in place to ensure quality in interpretation services but does not explain what these procedures are.
Meanwhile, Judge David Riordan finds that "the use of translation slows the whole process down and removes the relative spontaneity normal in the District Courts" (The Irish Times, December 31st). We are more concerned about the standard of interpreting provided.
We know there are many very competent interpreters working in this area but we are all too well aware that many are there because they are "speakers of other languages" and not because they are competent interpreters.
The State spent over €8 million on interpreting in 2007, a figure that will increase in future years. We are concerned that this amount is being spent without any monitoring or quality control.
It is only right that interpreters be provided, but there is an urgent need for proper systems to be put in place to ensure that interpreters can carry out their work competently and ethically. - Yours, etc,
MARY PHELAN,
PRO, Irish Translators' and Interpreters' Association,
Parnell Square,
Dublin 1.