TRANSLATING documents into the Irish language has cost the taxpayer at least €6.2 million over the past six years, it has emerged.

The Official Languages Act 2003 makes it obligatory that all government publications must be available in both Irish and English.

The astonishing costs in translation have arisen right across the fifteen government Departments but do not give the full scale of spending on the Irish language, which may be far higher.

The Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs was unsurprisingly the biggest spender, with €3.26 million in translation costs.

The department said savings were being made by the fact that many of its staff were bilingual and could provide service through both languages "at no extra cost".

A statement said: "It has been a long-standing policy of the department to ensure that customers who wish to conduct their business through a choice of Irish or English are facilitated.

"Accordingly, expenditure on providing services through Irish and English arises from our existing commitments to our customers and is met from our normal administrative budget.

"Staff in many of the department's organisational units are in a position to provide services through Irish or English ... at no extra cost."

The Department of the Taoiseach spent more than €320,000 changing documents from English into Irish and said it was determined to provide a "higher standard of service in both languages".

The Department of Health said it had spent at least €405,000 on the Official Languages Act but that the true figure was probably much higher.

A statement said: "Some expenditure by the department on services provided through the Irish language cannot be readily distinguished from the overall cost of the service."

Even the Department of Foreign Affairs racked up a sizable bill, spending €62,801 on translation.

It said: "The significant increase in costs in 2008 [to €31,511] is mainly due to the translation costs associated with the Irish version of the department's Statement of Strategy 2008-2010 and expenditure of €20,188 in respect of costs associated with the translation into Irish of a significant proportion of the content of the Department's website."