asked the Minister for Lands whether the Gaeltacht families settled by the Land Commission in non-Gaeltacht areas continue to any extent to use Irish as their customary language in the home.
50.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Gaeltacht Families in non-Gaeltacht areas: Use of Irish.
49.
asked the Minister for Lands whether he will consider the desirability of having all Gaeltacht families who are resettled in non-Gaeltacht areas settled in the same area in order that they form an Irish-speaking community.
I propose, with the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, to take Questions Nos. 49 and 50 together.
As Minister for Lands I have, of course, no specifically assigned function regarding the Irish language. However, I understand that many of the families referred to continue to use Irish as the language of the home.
The colonies established in Co. Meath, in the period 1935-40, are the only Gaeltacht colonies, as such, set up by the Land Commission. Normally, the transfer of families from Gaeltacht to non-Gaeltacht areas happens as part of the land settlement programme, in which the general circumstances of applicants and, in the case of migrants, the suitability of their lands for rearrangement purposes are necessarily the main determining factors.
There are obvious practical difficulties confronting the resettlement, in one locality, of all migrants from Gaeltacht areas. The Land Commission, in formulating their migration schemes each year, try to arrange, as far as possible, that families from a particular neighbourhood—Gaeltacht or non-Gaeltacht—are resettled on new holdings adjacent to one another. Only last Spring, a group of five families from the Co. Mayo Gaeltacht were resettled on the same estate in South Co. Wicklow.