The Congress of Deputies will be plagued with headphones and translation boxes this Tuesday to allow the three co-official languages – Basque, Galician and Catalan – in addition to Spanish to be used in the first plenary after the constitution of the House. In an express operation to fulfill the commitment that allowed the election of Francina Armengol as president, a total of 450 one-person teams have been purchased – which are added to the more than 200 that were already owned -. To these 650 available devices, which are now property of Congress, we must add the rental of the radio frequency systems that will transmit the signal and their maintenance.. These devices will be used by deputies and Chamber staff, as well as by the public and the press who access the Chamber..

In material alone, the cost until the end of this year has been estimated at approximately 53,000 euros, parliamentary sources report.. Of this amount, around 7,600 euros corresponds to the purchase of the 450 headphones and the remaining 45,900 euros have to do with the rental of equipment (six high-frequency radiators, infrared transmitter, bodypacks…) and its installation when appropriate. And maintenance.

In any case, the material cost is by far the smallest item that the use of the three co-official languages will involve, since it does not include the bulk of the expense, which will be that corresponding to the interpreters who will do the simultaneous oral and writing and translation of documents. Only between now and the end of the year and with restricted use that does not affect all the Chamber's procedures, the amount could exceed 282,000 euros.

In principle, the intention of the Presidency of Congress is to implement the use of the three co-official languages in all parliamentary activity within a maximum period of six months.. Therefore, the expense will increase, since it will cover plenary sessions and especially commissions..

Congress will have at its disposal a pool of 12 approved translators who have already worked for the Senate. They will be hired “on an as-needed basis” and will invoice the work hours afterwards as self-employed workers.. An interpreter with these characteristics can charge over 80 euros per hour, although the forecast is that until the end of the year none of them will be above what is considered a minor contract, which is to charge 15,000 euros plus VAT, parliamentary sources report. .

This cost, which is the highest of the service, is undetermined for many reasons. The main one is that it is not known when the commissions will be able to be formed and get rolling.. It depends on when there is a Government and also on how many are established based on the ministries.. If there is time for several sessions to be held, the price of the service will logically increase significantly.

For the plenary sessions of the Chamber, like this Tuesday, the work of six interpreters will be necessary. All of them will translate exclusively into Spanish. That is, there will not be a direct translation into Catalan, Galician or Basque.. This is something that is done in the European Parliament, that any language is translated into all the others, which also multiplies the cost of this service by the number of people needed.

Starting this Tuesday, deputies will listen to the simultaneous translation through headphones. Likewise, two large plasma screens will also be installed in the Hemicycle on which the session can be followed with subtitles in Spanish.. This will be especially useful for those who access the guest stand and do not have headphones. As well as for those who want to listen to the Plenary Session with real sound. These screens were already property of Congress because they were installed when Zelensky intervened electronically from Ukraine.

The plenary sessions can be followed in different ways. There will be the possibility of seeing it and hearing the real sound, as it is being produced. There will be another option that will emit the sound with the translation covering the original sound. And there will be the alternative of watching it with clean sound and Spanish subtitles.

In the Senate, the chamber in which co-official languages can be used in debates on motions and in sessions of the general commission of autonomous communities, former senator Alicia Sánchez Camacho reported that in 2010 the cost reached 350,000 euros.