Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 23 July 2020
70. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the steps he plans to take to ensure that local authorities protect the status of the Irish language in Gaeltacht areas in the development and the implementation of county plans; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17311/20]
View answerThe Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended, (the Act) sets out mandatory objectives for local authorities, which must be addressed in the drafting of County Development Plans. Section 10(2) of the Act includes a requirement that, where there is a Gaeltacht area in the area of the development plan, the plan must include provisions for “the protection of the linguistic and cultural heritage of the Gaeltacht including the promotion of Irish as the community language”.
My Department has produced planning guidelines, ‘Development Plans, Guidelines for Planning Authorities’, to provide guidance and advice on the development and implementation of local policy to address this mandatory objective of the Act. These guidelines refer to linguistic and cultural heritage and the needs of the community in land-use terms for housing, community facilities, employment, tourism and design, including advertising and signage. For example, the Galway County Development Plan 2015-2021 incorporated a subsequent Variation to include a specific Gaeltacht area plan.
Since April 2019, the assessment of all local authority forward planning, including development plans, local area plans etc. is undertaken by the Office of the Planning Regulator (OPR). The oversight role of the OPR includes ensuring consistency with relevant national or regional policies and addressing all relevant mandatory objectives for County Development Plans, including the provision of Gaeltacht-specific objectives, where required.
As set out in the National Planning Framework (NPF), published in 2018, the language planning process, as prescribed in the Gaeltacht Act 2012, represents the primary driver in support of the commitment to the achievement of the objectives set out in the 20 Year Strategy for the Irish Language 2010 to 2030. Objective 29 of the NPF makes provision for supporting the implementation of language plans in Gaeltacht Language Planning Areas, Gaeltacht Service Towns and Irish Language Networks.
