Thank you Mr Aylward,

It's all true then. Wasn't far into the session before I became aware of hearing irish spoken, and then promtly rushing to find out if - yes indeed, interpreted into each and every language, even bulgarian. You can tell theyve been theyve been waiting.... biding their time till january 1st when they can whip it out and launch into a full on rant as gaeilge, much to the bemusement of everyone else, and the amusement of some. Especially the Brits, such as Edward Mcmillan-Scott, whose smirk as he thanked the interpreters and congratulated Prontius de Rossa on an impressive "irish accent", just said it all. Hopefully the novelty will wear off soon, I imagine when they stop trusting these interpreters to speak for them while about 6 or 7 people get the original, (and having it translated & filtered twice over if done by relay) they'll switch back sharpish. At least as far as the socialists are concerned. As for Fianna Fáil, hopefully the national pride gets the better of them, the fewer ears they reach the better.

Andrew M, my source & the authority on all things remotely related to Ireland and/or politics cited the figure as €648,000, which sounds pricey to me, but in the context of EU bureacratic stupidity is apparently smallfry.

But it's not just the price tag that makes me uneasy. 350,000 speak irish everyday, of those the number for whom it is a mother tongue is estimated at around 70,000-83,000. This is clearly not about communication.
One complaint might be that nations are treated differently depending on influence and size. But is that really meant to be news? In the EP, meetings will generally have interpretation only into english, french, german, & spanish, if that. This isn't political, it's practical.

Surely we have enough trouble battling the differences that exist already, without attempting to introduce supplementary ones where they aren't strictly necessary. And it raises questions about whether the primary function of the EP is to create coherent policy or to be a showground for countries to flaunt their diversities, just for the sake of it. For me the answer is clear, it is a parliament, not an international festival. MEPs can best accomplish their duty to citiziens by swallowing their national pride and just getting the job done.