The housing crisis could lead to the “death” of the Irish language, protesters have claimed, as fluent speakers are having to leave Gaeltacht areas as they cannot find or afford somewhere to live.
The demonstration, organised by a coalition of campaign groups, took place on Tuesday outside Leinster House in Dublin and aimed to highlight the “disproportionate” impact the shortage of affordable housing is having on Gaeltacht areas.
They called on Minister for Housing James Browne to introduce measures to protect unique communities in Gaeltacht areas.
Domhnall Ó Braonáin (25), who travelled from Connemara, Co Galway, to take part, said “people are leaving” the area because they are either unable to find or afford somewhere to live.
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He said there has been an “influx of people who can afford those houses, people not from Gaeltacht areas”, which meant “fewer and fewer people” are speaking Irish in Connemara.
Ó Braonáin said he fears “the day might come” when there “won’t be many, if any, Irish speakers in the Gaeltacht”.
“That’ll be the death of the language,” he added.
He said he is living with his parents and does not think it will be possible for him to find his own home in the area as the options to buy are “too costly” and few rentals are available.
John Prendergast, a protest organiser from the Tinteán group, said he was aware that the housing crisis is a national issue, but he claimed it is “disproportionately affecting Irish speaking areas”.
He said holiday lets are having an outsize impact in Irish-speaking areas, with the “rate of growth in Airbnbs, for example, at twice the national average in the last six years”.
“There’s 112 places in and around west Kerry available on Airbnb, and there’s zero to rent on daft.ie,” he said, adding that returning emigrants and students cannot find places to live.
Tinteán has four main demands for the Government including that Údarás na Gaeltachta, the authority responsible for Gaeltacht areas, be given housing powers.
They say a housing a population strategy should be developed for each Gaeltacht, housing and planning guidelines promised in 2021 should be published “without any delay”, and that a grant scheme should be reinstated “to provide support for Irish speakers who would like to build or renovate a house in the Gaeltacht”.
Naoise Ó Cearúil, a Fianna Fáil TD for Kildare North, attended the protest and said Browne had announced there would be “guidelines for housing in the Gaeltacht in the first half of 2027”.
He said the Committee on the Irish Language, Gaeltacht and the Irish-speaking Community, of which he is deputy chairman, would be dealing with “this specific issue” from next month.
He said Gaeltacht areas should not be treated as “another remote rural area” but instead as “areas of distinct heritage and language that need to be protected”.
He said planning guidelines “need to be adapted in order that people from the Gaeltacht that speak Irish are able to actually build in their locality”. – PA
