THE PSNI says it will discipline an officer and take “appropriate operational learning opportunities” over the arrest of an Irish speaker.

Máire Mhic an Fhailí gave her details in Irish after being arrested for wearing a Palestine Action t-shirt. An Ombudsman investigation has criticised police for making “no efforts to translate these details”.

Officers at the scene said it was impractical to do so during a protest. Summoning an interpreter might have been unfeasible, but why could nobody have produced a phone and used an app?

Over the past three years, while Northern Ireland’s new language laws were finally being brought into force, artificial intelligence has delivered almost flawless and instantaneous machine translation and made it freely available in everyone’s pocket.

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This has to transform how the issue is approached.

Not using the technology in court might still be understandable, although hand-held translation devices have been trialled in A&Es and GP surgeries in Northern Ireland, so they are apparently safe for matters of life and death.

But it is clearly good enough for basic interactions. Irish speakers could be asked to check the transcript on the phone to confirm accuracy.

If public bodies do not begin doing this, they will increasingly have to explain why.

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SINN Féin infrastructure minister Liz Kimmins has announced the UK’s biggest shake-up of new driver licensing in decades.

She did so via a special day of coverage on BBC Northern Ireland rather than through the assembly, earning a severe rebuke from the speaker.

While bypassing parliament is common political misbehaviour, a full day of BBC assistance is unusual.

Asked for an explanation by the News Letter, the BBC said its coverage was developed over several months and the Department for........

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