An Bord Pleanála is due to rule in late January on the results of this week's oral hearing into a housing development in the Gaeltacht village of Spiddal, Co Galway. Lorna Siggins, Western Correspondent, reports.
The appeals board has set January 26th for a decision on the hearing held in Furbo, Co Galway, which ended late on Thursday. The hearing, which was conducted through Irish but with translation, is regarded as a test case for new initiatives in planning legislation to protect the Irish language.
Under the Galway County Development Plan 2003-2009, developers of new housing schemes in the Gaeltacht are required to sign a legal agreement with the planning authority to ensure that the housing is for the "exclusive use of occupants who have an appropriate competence/fluency in Irish".
Details of how competence would be evaluated have to be agreed in writing with the planning authority before finalisation of the legal agreement.
The provision is underpinned by the 2000 Planning and Development Act, which allows for inclusion of objectives in county plans to protect linguistic and cultural heritage.
However, a legal agreement signed by Galway County Council with the developer of the apartment complex in Spiddal applied the language provision to 62 per cent rather than 100 per cent of the units.
This has fuelled fears that the council is less than committed to its own language clause and was one of the main reasons for an objection lodged by a residents' group to the Hyberg development.
The developers argued that outline planning permission did not include the language stipulation.
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