An Oireachtas committee has been told that the rate of planning refusals has dropped significantly in Galway’s Gaeltacht areas.
However campaigners say the Irish language is not properly recognized.
The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage had a report from Galway County Council showing that over 86% of planning permission applications from the County’s Gaeltacht areas were given the go-ahead last year.
That is in keeping with statistics for the County, as a whole.
324 applicants in Gaeltacht communities were successful leaving a 13.8% refusal rate.
That refusal rate was down from 24.8% the previous year.
Notwithstanding that, Donncha Ó hÉallaithe from the Gaeltacht based campaign Bánú, stated that Galway County Council was missing out on a basic issue as regards the Irish language, in its planning system.
He instanced a case where a Gaeltacht person living in the city was refused planning in her native area, and told she did not have a housing requirement in the Gaeltacht.
This, Mr. Ó hÉallaithe said, was missing the point of giving Irish speakers an opportunity to come back to live in Gaeltacht communities and foster the language.
