Assembly to dump Welsh

[Harold Schiffman]

*Assembly to dump Welsh*

Jul 19 2006

**

Martin Shipton, Western Mail

A MASSIVE row has broken out over an astonishing proposal at the National
Assembly to stop translating speeches made in English into Welsh. Plaid
Cymru AM Lord Elis-Thomas, the presiding officer, wants the money saved to
be diverted into translating the increased volume of legal documents that
will arise when the Assembly's powers grow next May.But Deputy Presiding
Officer John Marek and Welsh language groups are strongly critical of the
plan, saying it would amount to a betrayal of the Assembly's bilingual
principles. We can reveal that the issue is under consideration following
discussions in the Assembly's House Committee, which meets in private. Last
Thursday the committee was given details of a budget for next year that
includes unspecified cuts of £800,000.

More than £200,000 a year is spent ensuring that the record of Assembly
plenary sessions is published on the Assembly's website within 24 hours of
the twice weekly meetings. Lord Elis-Thomas, whose wife Mair heads the
Assembly's translation unit, said, "From next year a new body called the
Assembly Commission will be responsible for the legislative part of the
Assembly. With new law-making powers coming in, we need to look very
carefully at how we operate."My personal proposal is that we should give
priority to ensuring that proposed Assembly legislation should be published
in both languages. We will be having plenary sessions three days a week, and
I do not believe we should continue to translate into Welsh all the speeches
that are made in English. "There is a serious capacity problem, which is
being looked at over the summer. I do not believe there are enough
translators available to maintain the current high standards if we continue
to translate all the plenary speeches.

"My view is that it is far more important to translate laws, which will have
lasting significance, rather than endless debates."

Lord Elis-Thomas stressed this was a personal proposal and that no decision
had been reached. Dr Marek said, "So far as I am concerned this proposal is
completely wrong. It is simply not acceptable to start rowing backwards from
a policy of doing things bilingually, where if people want to access plenary
debates through the language they prefer they are able to do so. "In the
early days of the Assembly, we used to have plenary speeches made in Welsh
translated into English within a day, while it took several days to
translate English speeches into Welsh. Now we have everything translated
within 24 hours and it is actually less expensive than it was before. "I
think the Presiding Officer is wrong again when he talks about spending
translation money on the new legislative measures instead. It is the
Assembly Government's responsibility to pay for the translation of laws -
not the Assembly Parliamentary Service."

Dafydd Morgan Lewis of Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg, the Welsh Language
Society, said, "We would be worried if there was any slackening in the
language policy of the National Assembly that would result in the wrong
message being sent out to other organisations and institutions. "Recently
all political parties have agreed that the Football Association of Wales is
wrong not to have a fully bilingual policy in its meetings. Why should
anybody in Wales take bilingualism seriously if the National Assembly itself
is failing in its duty? "We are sure Dafydd Elis- Thomas will be able to
find many other things to cut, rather than attacking the Assembly's own
language policy. He would be the first to argue that there should be no
price on democracy: our democracy is bilingual." Aran Jones, chief executive
of the Welsh language communities group Cymuned, said, "Dafydd El is an
amazing fellow who never fails to surprise. For the last few years it seems
he has been running a personal campaign to get himself kicked out of Plaid,
as if that would be a fitting round-up to a gloriously unpredictable career.

"It's probably not particularly helpful to give an emotional response.
Instead, we prefer to ask a series of questions that we would like to see
get clear answers. "Before any sweeping changes are introduced, has the
Assembly looked at how other bilingual countries operate? How do the Basque
Parliament and councils in the Basque country deal with translation issues,
for example? We should be looking to follow best practice.  "Everyone
accepts that the Assembly has to be fiscally prudent, but it is more likely
to make significant savings by looking at its management systems rather than
by making service cuts in a relatively insignificant spending area like the
translation service." Mr Jones also said he could not agree that there was
insufficient Welsh translation capacity to cope with the extra work.

"One of the consequences of having a bilingual Assembly should be that work
opportunities are made available to people living in Welsh-speaking parts.
"Translating is a very good example of work that can be done at home using
email and the internet. We've invested huge sums in making broadband
available across Wales: this is a great opportunity to use it." Mr Jones
added that any proposal to change translation work at the Assembly should be
subject to full and open consultation. "It is quite wrong that this
important issue should be debated by a shadowy committee meeting in
private."
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