Not a single copy of the Irishlanguage version of last year's budget has yet been sold, despite being translated from English at a cost of almost 4,000. Under the controversial Official Languages Act, all government departments have to provide Irish language versions of major publications regardless of whether anybody wants to read them or not.

Cowen admitted last week that on top of the translation work carried out by his own staff which could not be costed, he had spent 3,875.13 on outside translation work.

This was done by Gaeleagras na Seirbhise na Poibli, a public body which provides a translation service to departments.

Despite the expense, not a single copy of the Irish version had been sold to date, he said. By contrast, the Budget in the original English is one of the Government's biggest sellers.

Gaeltacht minister Eamon O Cuiv's 2003 Act has come in for trenchant criticism for heaping extra costs on government departments unnecessarily and trying to force rather than persuade people to use Irish.

Last week, O Cuiv announced that under new regulations, all government departments and agencies will have to have all recorded messages, such as public announcements and phone messages, translated into Irish by 2008.