Lawyers have welcomed the proposal to abolish compulsory Irish language requirements and replace them with a two-tier level of qualification in the language. The Legal Practitioners (Irish Language) Bill received its second reading last week.
Under the 1929 Legal Practitioners (Qualification) Act nobody could be admitted to practise at the bar without satisfying the Chief Justice that he or she had "competent knowledge" of the Irish language, defined as the ability to receive instructions and follow proceedings.
However, there was no obligation on the King's Inns, the body which educates barristers, to include an Irish course on its curriculum.
The same arrangements applied to solicitors until the 1954 Solicitors Act, which required students to take two examinations in Irish, one at the apprenticeship stage and the second at qualification stage, in order to become a solicitor. The examinations consisted of written tests on prescribed texts, which had nothing to do with the law, and were not conducted by the Law Society.
The new Bill provides for both the Law Society and the King's Inns to provide two courses in Irish. The first will be a course on legal terminology for students taking the barrister-at-law degree in the King's Inns and the Professional Practice course in the Law Society. Both courses will enable those qualifying to understand what service an Irish speaker may require, and refer them to a qualified practitioner.
For those who wish to practise law through Irish, the Bill provides for both institutions to ensure that an advanced course on the practice of law through Irish is available as an optional subject. There will be an examination in this advanced course, and those who pass it will be able to register as practitioners in the Irish language.
The Bill requires the Law Society to establish and maintain an Irish Language Register of practitioners so qualified. A copy of it must be made available to the King's Inns, which will also be required to keep its own register of barristers qualified to practise through Irish.
In addition, arrangements have been made for the King's Inns to provide a training course for jurist linguists, in order to qualify people to verify legislation in all official languages, including Irish, before they can be adopted by the Council of the EU and the European Parliament.
The Law Society of Ireland has welcomed the Bill, which it said was "particularly timely in the light of growing interest in the use of the Irish language". Its president, James MacGuill, said that the requirements will be met "in full, immediately but, most importantly, wholeheartedly. The society sees itself having an important role in the promotion of the Irish language to the public."