Coimisinéir Teanga finds council guilty of breach of planning law
KERRY County Council planning policies that are supposed to help preserve the Irish language in the West Kerry Gaeltacht fall far short of what is needed to stem the continuing decline of the language, according to Comharchumann Forbartha Chorca Dhuibhne Bainisteoir Pádraig Ó Sé.
His comments come in the wake of the publication last Thursday of the annual report of the Coimisinéir Teanga who found the council guilty of a “serious breach” of planning law when it failed to implement language conditions attached to the ‘Tithe Saoire Na Cluainte’ housing development in Baile an Fheirtéaraigh.
In 2004 Kerry County Council granted Southbound Properties Ltd permission to build 20 houses at Na Cluainte, but Donncha Ó hÉallaithe appealed the decision to An Bord Pleanála on the grounds that the council failed to include any conditions concerning the use of the Irish language. An Bord Pleanála subsequently decided to allow the development go ahead but cut the number of houses to 16 and imposed a condition that 12 of the 16 houses (75 per cent) were to be provided to people with “a reasonable fluency in the Irish language”.
The language condition, which was supposed to have been agreed between Southbound and the Council before building commenced, had a 15-year lifespan and was intended to apply to “households who occupy these dwellings whether as owners, lessees or tenants, other than holiday lettings for periods of one month or less”.
The order by An Bord Pleanála was intended to protect the language and cultural heritage of the West Kerry Gaeltacht area. However, Coimisinéir Teanga Ronán Ó Domhnaill found that the council failed to ensure the planning conditions were met.
An tUas Ó Domhnaill’s report specifically points out that:
• The council apparently failed to sign off on the language agreement with Southbound before work on building the houses started on February 6, 2006.
• There were “fundamental faults in the agreement that rendered it not fit for purpose”.
• “The actions taken to implement the agreement demonstrated a lack of clarity, procrastination and a lack of commitment and they were ineffective”.
• No long term occupier or purchaser of the houses in Tithe Saoire na Cluainte was ever interviewed to determine their ability in Irish.
Following the publication of the Comisinéir Teanga report last Thursday Kerry County Council issued a statement saying that, under current procedures, planning applications for more than three houses in Gaeltacht areas are assessed in the context of protecting the Irish Language. And specifically in West Kerry “an Irish language condition is placed on permissions for housing developments so as to mitigate the impact on this Gaeltacht area by non-Irish speakers”.
The council adds that “a minimum of 31 per cent of housing developments zoned ‘permanent residential’ shall be reserved for Irish speakers. The standard of Irish required shall be determined and assessed by Kerry County Council [and] before any grant of permission, clarity is sought from the developer as to how they will comply with the condition”.
However, Comharchumann Forbartha Chorca Dhuibhne Bainisteoir
Pádraig Ó Sé told The Kerryman this week that, rather than protecting the Irish language, Kerry County Council’s policies will actually ensure the language continues to be eroded.
“The problem is that the Irish language is under pressure. If you increase the density of the dominant language [English] in the community the net effect is that you dilute the weaker language,” he said. “In the Dún Úrlann electoral district, which includes Baile an Fheirtéaraigh, over 65 per cent of the population are native Irish speakers and in Dún Chaoin the figure is higher. Therefore, having a requirement that only 31 per cent of houses in those areas should be for Irish speakers is not sufficient to avoid the diluting effect.”
He added that the council’s decision to limit the Irish language requirement to developments of three or more houses seemed “a bit silly”, given that most planning applications in the West Kerry Gaeltacht are for single houses rather than multi-house developments.
“You need positive discrimination towards the language… If there is an advantage to be gained from speaking Irish then people will jump in.
But as things stand there is a lack of incentives.”
“For example, students get a 10 per cent bonus for using Irish in the Leaving Cert. Why not have a similar advantage for Irish speakers in relation to planning applications. There could also be tax advantages for Irish speakers living in An Ghaeltacht,” he said.
Coimisinéir Teanga Ronán Ó Domhnaill told The Kerryman his recommendations to the Council included putting in place measures to enforce the Irish language objectives in the County Development Plan. He said he was satisfied that the council’s policy meets this requirement but added that “the language standard would have to be credible and measurable”.
“Where a language condition is set out [for housing developments] Kerry County Council is required to ensure they implement it,” he said.
The Tithe Saoire na Cluainte houses were sold by NAMA two years ago. A Council spokesperson told The Kerryman this week that responsibility for implementing the language condition attaching to the development now rests with the new owners.