Turf-cutting rights
Senator Mullen backed Senator Murphy on turf-cutting families' rights and said legal ambiguity should be resolved in favour of those affected.
I wish to support what Senator Murphy had to say about the rights of turf-cutting families and the National Parks and Wildlife Service. It is a topic I will return to myself but I will say that wherever there is any ambiguity in the law, there is a time-honoured principle that it has to be resolved in favour of the person who would be affected by it. I was at a very interesting conference yesterday on the subject of the role of the EU and its member states in supporting global accountability mechanisms, including universal jurisdiction, international courts and special tribunals. I will return to that later because we dealt with the very troubling phenomenon of judges of the International Criminal Court being sanctioned by the US Administration. However, one of the guides to interpretation of that EU conference said, "Please also note that the meeting will be held in full linguistic regime, with the exception of Gaelic." Now, it was obviously referring to Gaeilge. It is a fact that Ireland has not filled its quota of places at EU level for translators and interpreters. It is also a fact that, currently, the European Parliament's interpretation service is not providing for the right of Members of Parliament to exercise their right to speak Irish in committee and delegation meetings under Rule 174 of the Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament. The question has to be asked, because we now have our Presidency coming up, if there are specific measures being put in place to ensure that the European Parliament's interpretation service can provide Irish interpretation during the Council Presidency. We need to know how many Irish language staff interpreters are currently employed by the parliament, how many permanent interpreter positions would be needed to allow members to be able to speak in committees and delegation meetings, and how many extra permanent translator and proofreader positions will be needed in DG TRAD Gaeilge in order to let members exercise their right to read documents in Irish in committee and delegation meetings. The Government should be concerned that we are not filling our quota of posts at EU level because of this derogation. Tá sé fíorthábhachtach go dtapódh an Rialtas an deis anois chun a chinntiú go bhfuil seirbhís aistriúchán ceart acu siúd ar mhaith leo labhairt i nGaeilge agus doiciméid a léamh i nGaeilge nuair atá fostaíocht ar fáil d'Éireannaigh chun obair aistriúchán a dhéanamh in institiúidí na hEorpa. Ba chóir go mbeimis ag baint feidhm as sin ar fad.