No community has the right to set conditions for accepting local authority housing applicants, the Minister of State for Arts, Heritage, the Gaeltacht and the Islands, Mr Eamon O Cuiv, has said.
However, there were reasons to be concerned about the impact on the Irish language of private housing developments in some Gaeltacht areas, the Minister of State said yesterday. An Bord Pleanala had recognised this in relation to a recent planning ruling in Co Donegal.
Mr O Cuiv was responding to reports that a Connemara residents' association intended to introduce an Irish language test for anyone wishing to live in a new local authority housing development in Carraroe.
Under the Galway county development plan there is provision to refuse planning permission for housing schemes if a case can be made that the Irish language is threatened. However, this language impact statement O Cuiv said he was instrumental in introducing, would rarely apply to the area from Rossaveal to Lettermullen, given the strength of the language and the acute shortage and cost of sites there.
Speaking to The Irish Times, the Minister of State said most applicants for local authority houses in the Connemara Gaeltacht would be Irish-speakers already, as they would either be living in the area or renting accommodation in adjoining English-speaking localities.
O Cuiv confirmed he had met residents from Coiste Coilean in Carraroe, and had contacted the Galway County Manager in his capacity as Junior Minister for the Gaeltacht. He had expressed concern about adherence to the language impact statement in the county plan in relation to private housing, and said he had also raised the importance of allocating local authority houses in the Gaeltacht to Irish speakers.
But the allocation of local authority housing was a power that rested with the council's executive, and not even with individual councillors, the Minister of State said.
Locals in the Gaeltacht village of An Cheathru Rua (Carraroe) were so concerned about the threat to the language from non-Irish speakers, they formed a committee to tackle the issue in relation to new housing estates. Over 100 families have applied to live in a new 18-home development in the village, but only those with a competent knowledge of Irish are expected to be allocated homes.
Mr Ciaran O Fatharta, chairman of the residents' association who formed the committee, denied there was discrimination involved. It was formed to protect the culture and language of the area by ensuring that those allocated houses in new estates had a good grasp of the language, he said. "We have to protect what we have. . . We are not objecting to council houses or to Travellers, but there is no guarantee that these houses are allocated to Irish-speaking people. They go to whoever is next on the list and we feel that this is detrimental to the language and to the fabric of the community."