The High Court has declared that the State respondents breached a constitutional duty by taking an unreasonable length of time to publish an official Irish translation of the Planning and Development Act 2018. The translation became available in April 2020, about 17 months after the Act was signed into law, the judgment said.
The court also ordered that official Irish translations be prepared within a reasonable time for the statutory instruments remaining on the applicants’ schedule, excluding items xiii, xv, xvii, xviii and xxi. The court did not set a deadline. It gave the parties three weeks to make submissions on costs, the form of the final order and related matters, including the time needed to prepare the translations.
The applicants are Glann Mór Céibh Teoranta, Glann Mór Cuan Teoranta and Siobhán Denvir-Bairéad. Their challenge arose from Irish Water’s 2019 compulsory purchase order for the An Cheathrú Rua sewerage scheme. They said they needed authoritative Irish translations of relevant planning and environmental instruments to prepare and conduct an effective objection at an oral hearing before An Bord Pleanála, which was to be held in Irish.
The applicants argued that the absence of translations would put them at a disadvantage and obstruct their ability to take part in Irish. The State respondents disputed that they had breached any language or fair-procedure rights. They argued there was no general constitutional duty to translate statutory instruments and that the 17-month period for translating the 2018 Act was reasonable given its length and complexity.
The court distinguished between Acts of the Oireachtas and statutory instruments. It held that the Constitution did not impose a general duty to translate every statutory instrument. But, in this case, the applicants had shown a need for the specified instruments and that they would be disadvantaged without official translations for the Irish-language planning hearing. The court concluded that translations of the remaining listed instruments were necessary.
The judgment also records that the applicants’ earlier challenge concerned a 2018 compulsory purchase order, which Irish Water withdrew in March 2019 and An Bord Pleanála annulled the following month. The 2019 order was made in September 2019. The judgment did not decide the underlying objection to that order, and the final form of the relief and costs remained outstanding.