Connemara's population runs the risk of being labelled "introverted" and "inbred" if a proposal to restrict house planning permission to fluent Irish speakers is agreed, according to an independent Galway county councillor.
Mr Séamus Walsh, chairman of the Connemara group of councillors, says the proposal in the draft county development plan reflects a "fanatical way of thinking" about the language. Final submissions on the second draft plan must be made by tomorrow. The Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Mr Ó Cuív, is also submitting recommendations.
Mr Walsh, an engineer and Irish speaker, said he had "98 per cent of the people of Connemara" behind him. No councillor had the right to "split the Gaeltacht" - as the proposal does not apply to all of the Galway county Gaeltacht - and the rule would also discriminate against returning immigrants.
The controversial amendment to the first draft plan was made by Fine Gael councillor Mr Pól Ó Foighil in December and would apply to an area of south Connemara from Furbo to Carna. "The Planning Act 2000 states that there must be mandatory policy objectives to protect the linguistic and cultural heritage of the area, including Irish," Mr Ó Foighil said.
The Galway County Development Plan already requires a language impact statement from applicants in Gaeltacht areas, but "this does not go far enough. A submission in writing is no test of language ability, when we are talking about the survival of Irish as a community language," Mr Ó Foighil added.
His proposal referred to fluency by the applicant only and would not therefore discriminate against returning families, some members of which might not be proficient in the language. There had been some "confusion" over an interview he had given on Raidio na Gaeltachta, where he had mistakenly stated all members of an applicant family must be fluent.
Mr Ó Foighil said he was aware critics were saying he stood to benefit from such a regulation through family businesses. "First of all, I own no land, not even the house I am in," he said. "Secondly, I founded Coláiste Lurgan in Inverin, Co Galway, in 1968 and it has brought in millions of pounds to the Gaeltacht area and is the cultural tourism of the Gaeltacht."
Mr Donncha Ó hEallaithe, the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology maths lecturer who carried out a survey on the extent of Irish use in the home in Gaeltacht areas, supports Mr Ó Foighil's proposal.
He said his study showed that south Connemara, from Spiddal to Carna, was the largest Irish-speaking area in the country, with a population of 10,500 people. "This area alone constitutes over half the population of the remaining Irish-speaking areas in the whole of Ireland," he said.
"Unless definitive and restrictive planning regulations are clearly specified in the County Development Plan, there is a great danger that the erosion of Irish will continue in this area unabated."
