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EU’s top court delivers first judgement on case brought in Irish

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The name of the case, Case C-64/20 ‘C-64/20 An tAire Talmhaíochta, Bia agus Mara amárach – seo an chéad tarchur chun réamhrialú leis an nGaeilge mar theanga an cháis’ , or in mBearla (in English) Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Just another judgement from the European Union’s top court. But this time there’s a twist, writes Catherine Feore.

Although a case in Irish could be referred to the Court from 1973, when Ireland joined the EU, no one has done so to date. Court press officer Jacques René Zammit explained: “It is the first time that the proceedings of a case were conducted in Irish, we have already had judgments translated into Irish, but this is the first time that the proceedings of a case from start to finish were in Irish, it has always been possible.”

“No one has chosen to do that until this case. So this is the first time, we have a case that from start to finish was dealt with in Irish. What does that mean? It means that the person pleading the case can do so in their own language. When the case gets to our court, it gets here in Irish. We translated it into French, which is the working language of the court, and then when the final result is out, it is translated firstly into the language of the case, so that it is accessible to the citizens who have made the case.”

The case was triggered by an Irish citizen, who complained that veterinary medicines they had purchased for their dog were only labelled in English and not in Irish.

When we asked Zammit if it was a pure coincidence that the judgement was published today (17 March), on St Patrick’s Day, he said: “The official answer has to be yes. Of course, a case has a procedure. There are deadlines, translations, the drafting of the judgment. So it would be a bit far-fetched to think that they stretch deadlines, or shorten them, in order to hit St. Patrick’s Day. I like to think that there is some magic up above and we could celebrate the first Irish case on St. Patrick's Day.”

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