Cost of translation is £400,000

By Niall Blaney
BBC News

Many cases were in connection with alleged driving offences

More than £400,000 has been spent on court interpreters over the last five years, the Public Prosecution Service has said.

It follows the release of a Hungarian national from a Fermanagh court after no interpreter was available.

The PPS said in 2006-2007, £190,202 was spent on translation services in Northern Ireland's courts.

The prosecution service said it would not be financially viable to employ its own interpreters.

It said the costs include cases where a witness gave evidence in a language other than English which had to be translated.

COST OF TRANSLATION 2002-03: £4,591 2003-04: £33,956 2004-05: £53,552 2005-06: £118,470 2006-07: £190,202 TOTAL: £400,771 *Source PPS

It also includes cases where the defendant did not understand English and so all the proceedings had to be translated into the language he or she understood.

Many of the cases involving foreign nationals are in connection with alleged driving offences.

In July it was revealed 12% of people arrested last year for driving over the limit in Northern Ireland were from two eastern European countries.

Using a Freedom of Information request the BBC found that 2,301 people were arrested for being over the legal drink-drive limit in 2006.

Of those 4% were Polish and 8% Lithuanian. Overall they account for no more than about 1% of NI's population.