2026-07-14

8. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht if he has assessed the potential impact of the draft national housing statement, particularly the proposed changes to occupancy requirements in multi-unit housing developments in Gaeltacht areas, on the implementation of the language planning process under the Gaeltacht Act 2012; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53016/26]

A total of 2,119 pubs have closed since 2005, and another 1,000 pubs are currently at risk. It is estimated that 100 local shops close every year in Ireland, which means two shops are shut on a weekly basis. In the past decade, 257 post offices have closed; that is one post office closing every fortnight for ten years. Some 139 Garda stations were closed 13 years ago, and if you put it over a stretch in time, that is equal to one Garda station closing every month. Indeed, there are 53 Garda stations with no garda at all.

Thank you, Deputy. The Minister will respond, and then the Deputy can come back in.

What is the Minister doing as regards information and stats to be able to develop rural Ireland?

I have a question regarding the draft national housing statement in the Deputy's name. I can give the Deputy chapter and verse, because it is the-----

This is Question No. 8.

-----same question Deputy Conway Walsh has asked, but I have Question with the reference number 53016/26 on this one. That is what is on the Order Paper as well.

He corrected you there.

He did.

Does the Deputy want to give the big intro again?

The Minister can go ahead and I will come back in.

Am I answering the question on the housing statement?

The Minister is answering that one quickly, because he only has a minute and a half left.

In fairness, the question I have and the question the Deputy----

The Deputy asked. No, the question is Question No. 8.

That is on multi-unit housing development.

Yes.

I can give the Deputy the work we are doing. First, with regard to the draft national planning statement, and I will follow up and email the Deputy with a full answer, that is exactly about restoring population to these areas. Second, the investments I have just discussed with Deputy O'Rourke, and I highlighted an amazing project in the Deputy's own county in Kells, are investing in the RRDF projects to put investment back in rural communities. Through the town centre first plan, working with the Minister, Deputy Browne, and the Ministers of State, Deputies Cummins and Buttimer, we are putting in town regeneration officers to get people back living in towns. Through the vacant house and derelict house site, we are giving people the chance to get a start and to get the kind of refurbishment grants needed to get them back in. As regards services, it is difficult. We face the challenge of digitalisation. We need people to work and support local communities. I am working with the Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, around the whole area of community cafes, which are taking hold around the country. Communities are setting up cafes and we are looking at the notion of community shops as well. We will be publishing the new draft of our rural future in mid-September and it will contain many new initiatives to deal with exactly the kind of challenges the Deputy has dealt with. However, I will send the Deputy a full response subsequently.

A part of that question focuses on the development in the Gaeltacht areas. Obviously, the Gaeltacht is the well of the Irish language. The Gaeltacht is currently at such a level where it is at the edge of continuance. This could be the last generation with the Irish language as a community language within the Gaeltacht. One of the big elements of the Gaeltacht has obviously been the ability to raise families in the Irish language. Housing is a very important element of that and there are significant campaigns currently out there as a result of the lack of proper housing within the Gaeltacht. There are also language schemes but there is a threat potentially of people coming into Gaeltacht areas with only English and therefore changing the community language within that area. Recently, the Government had produced new guidelines on that and there were major concerns those guidelines would have the effect of reducing the Irish spoken in Gaeltacht areas if we sought to house a large number of English speakers in those Gaeltacht areas.

We had a discussion earlier with na Teachtaí Ó Snodaigh and McGuinness around the draft planning statement, which has been introduced by the Minister, Deputy Browne, and on which the Ministers of State, Deputies Buttimer and Cummins, and I have worked closely with him. It is a draft statement, in which we have tried to introduce a national standard regarding Gaeltacht planning and quotas in Gaeltacht areas. In some local authorities, there are varying degrees of that quota. It is 80% in some counties and it changes from area to area within counties. As I said, I will engage with any Deputy, since I do not claim ownership over this, about the Gaeltacht side of the draft planning statement to make it as robust as possible. We want to ensure that it protects the language. I am absolutely with the Deputy and every other Deputy about the notion of multi-unit houses in particular. They should be preserved or prioritised for people who have Irish, but we also have to respect that within Gaeltachtaí, there are people who do not have Irish. They have to be given a housing a right in their own community too.

To illustrate the idea, if there are ten people in a bar in the Gaeltacht and one is an English speaker, there is a tendency for the other nine to default to English to make sure that the English speaker is not left out of the conversation. One of the big threats in Gaeltacht areas is often high numbers of English speakers. Once it gets past a certain threshold, it significantly changes the language in that local area. It should be a prime objective of the Government to create a strong, vibrant, Irish-speaking area That cannot be done anywhere else where the language is not a community language because outside the Gaeltacht, the language really only exists in networks, and networks are far poorer in terms of language depth, knowledge, and so on. Údarás na Gaeltachta should be the housing authority for the Gaeltacht, because it is the only organisation that is really knowledgeable about the task and that has the prime objective of it. I know the Minister is shaking his head, but many local authorities simply do not really have a focus on the Irish and Gaeltacht areas.

We published the draft planning statement. We did not pull it out of the sky. I hate using the word "quota". The figures relating to the clause were taken from the census plus 10% in each language planning area. They were based on the number of active Irish speakers. They were not based on nine people not speaking English because of one person. We are open to discussing those thoroughly and constructively. Second, I want people to live in communities that are Irish-speaking where they can raise a family. I want education facilities at primary and secondary level and we are engaging in that. I want all of the elements of a successful community to be put in place. I also have to be realistic. We have to ensure that we have planning conditions that give Gaeltacht people with Gaeilge the chance to live in their home area and to move to another Gaeltacht. This is the first time there has ever been a draft national planning statement on the Gaeltacht. I am not precious. It is not perfect and I am happy to work with people to improve it over the next number of months.