Suburbs likely to be removed from Gaeltacht

Date Published: 17-Nov-2009

A 20-year blueprint for the Gaeltacht due out next month will recommend a redrawing of the boundaries, which will have major implications for the city with large suburbs contained within its realm.

Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Éamon Ó Cuív said this week that he will seek the postponement of the Údarás na Gaeltachta elections, due to be held by next October, because of the implications of the report. He will have to seek Dáil approval of the postponement by way of an amendment to legislation.

An array of grants payable for housing programmes, Irish speaking children and various social programmes and businesses have been available in Gaeltacht areas, which encompass several suburbs of the city.

Knocknacarra, Menlo and Terryland are all officially within the Gaeltacht, although for the last five years Polish has been become the second language rather than Irish with the multicultural mix that has evolved.

Under revised boundaries these are likely to be taken out of the Gaeltacht, Minister Ó Cuív said.

“This 20-year strategy will deal with the definition of the Gaeltacht, which is based on a 1956 Act – it’s very dated. It will also look at how we can develop the Irish language and how to develop it around Gaelscoileanna and where there are clusters of Gaelic speakers that are outside the Gaeltacht,” he said.

“It will have interesting implications for Galway City. It’s likely that major housing estates won’t be in the Gaeltacht, but we’re looking at an alternative status, a network Gaeltacht, that could be built around clusters of schools so that a wide variety of services could be provided so it will have a positive effect for those interested in the language in the city.”

Mr Ó Cuív said he believed the removal of the Gaeltacht grants for the suburbs would have zero effect. He said very few households got the Irish speaking incentive grant available through school and the housing grants had been suspended with the downturn.

Following the publication in May 2002 of Coimisiún na Gaeltachta’s report on the Irish language in the Gaeltacht, an advisory committee was set up to assist the Government in conducting its analysis and implementation of the recommendations contained in the report.

One of the 19 main recommendations was the commissioning of a comprehensive linguistic study of the usage of Irish in the Gaeltacht. That report, which has taken two years to compile, is expected to be published within six weeks. It will give the most comprehensive insight into the numbers of people using Irish as the main language of communication on a daily basis and their attitude regarding its future.

The study will assess the practical measures necessary to ensure more effective transmission of the Irish language from one generation to the next. It will also examine the effect of the planning policies being pursued at present by those local authorities with Gaeltacht areas within their jurisdiction in the context of their obligations under the Planning and Development Act, 2000.

More controversially, the study will review the Gaeltacht boundaries that have remained largely unchanged since 1956.

It is expected to present geographical and demographic choices that are deemed appropriate as a basis for defining the Gaeltacht boundaries, including the area electoral divisions as they are at present, in addition to parishes, townlands and school catchment areas.

Minister Ó Cuív refused to say what impact the report would have on the future of Údarás na Gaeltachta, which has been earmarked for abolition under the recommendations put forward by economist Colm McCarthy to achieve savings of €5.3bn in a year and reductions of over 17,300 public service employees.

Seosamh Ó Cuaig, Connemara County Councillor and Údaras board member, said it was clear the Minister “has it in” for the agency.