Cork County Council defends the use of Google Translate

By Concubhar Ó Liatháin

The County Council of Cork defended the use of Google Translate to provide an Irish-language version of its website, although this practice is referred to as " unacceptable "by Coimisiner Teanga / Commissioner for Languages. The board was responding to a question about the use of Google Translate on the website despite this being reflected in the use of "pidgin" Irish. Visitors to the Council's website can also access versions in Italian, French, German and Polish.

In the section welcoming visitors to Cork, the Irish version is littered with words in English and the sentences are poorly structured.

For example: "Corcaigh is a líonadh the eachtraí of gach cineál; amach duit féin taithí captivating go theor go fanacht his chathair bríomhar agus cosmopolitan an chontae, na tírdhreacha fiáin agus garbh de Iarthar Chorcaí, agus na stráicí infinitely gainimh agus carraig den chósta is poor in Éirinn. "

According to a spokesman for the council, Google Translate was used because of the" volume "of text on the website.

"Not to have broken the regulations by virtue of the commitments made in his language scheme"

The plan agreed by Cork County Council with the Gaeltacht Department in 2007 committed the council to having a bilingual web site. here in 2008 and that the Irish version would be maintained "in the same way" as the English version.

The use of Google Translate has been described as "unacceptable" by the Office of the. An Choimisnéir Teanga

In a subsequent statement, the spokesman of the council said: "The current translation is an interim solution because the board expects a significant change in our organizational structure. ional after the introduction of the new frontier. At this point, the County Council of Cork intends to provide a translation to a higher level. "