Ms Moira Murrell:

Tá lán rudaí ansin. Déanfaidh mé iarracht gach ceist a fhreagairt ach freagróidh mé as Béarla. For the purposes of clarity and explaining our position properly, I would be comfortable answering in English. The Deputy raised the botún made in respect of Pairceanna na Glas. While this is a fine scheme that is housing quite a high number of Irish-speaking people in a Gaeltacht area, there was quite a lot of coverage over the name, Pairceanna na Glas. Like any organisation, we learned from this. In my opening statement, I outlined that we have done quite a number of things to strengthen our approach in respect of the Irish language. A very important structure we have put in place is the three-person independent committee chaired by Éamonn Ó hArgáin and including representatives from the Uíbh Ráthach and Daingean Uí Chúis Gaeltachts. This committee will advise us in respect of specific matters in future.

One of the matters that comes under its remit is the naming of estates. That has been a very important intervention.

Deputy Daly raised the issue of Airbnb. I said in my opening statement that the level of short-term lets in a county like Kerry generally, and in Gaeltacht areas, comes into competition with the local community who are trying to acquire houses and raise their families. They are the primary residents. Killarney is an identified rent pressure zone in the county, so we have targeted it and we have seen the benefits of looking at the market and balancing around short-term lets. It is our intention as a council to begin the same process as I have outlined in the west Kerry Gaeltacht. We have done quite a lot of analysis on this and we can see there are a substantial number of properties and a very high number of short-term lets. We believe those require further examination because they are being brought into direct conflict with local people trying to acquire and set up homes for themselves.

On some of the measures in the county development plan, as I set out, an awful lot of work is being done to try to support the Gaeltacht areas. Deputy Daly will be aware we have multimillion euro schemes in development with regard to rural regeneration and Slea Head traffic management. That project relates to tourism and we are working with Fáilte Ireland on the tourism development plan, which includes the two Gaeltacht areas. We are working with the Uíbh Ráthach task force, and a Gteic is being established there with Údarás na Gaeltachta. There is also funding of €40 million, with €20 million for regeneration and another €20 million in amenities for the broader Cahersiveen area. All of that will support the Gaeltacht areas. There is a huge volume of work being done there, along with the sean-nós sa Daingean project, which is an-tábhachtach dúinn and do gach duine sa Daingean. There is an awful lot of work happening generally.

Looking specifically at the county development plan, we have put in a measure holding 66% of multi-unit developments for the Irish-speaking community. That is a very important move. We have moved from 31% in the current plan and there is no percentage in the current plan for Uíbh Ráthach. We are hoping that is another measure that will lead to support. While we do not have infrastructure and we do not really have hope of infrastructure coming, either across the county or in the Gaeltacht areas in particular, it is important we try to facilitate some limited type of development and accommodation for local people. We have identified four settlements, two in the Uíbh Ráthach Gaeltacht and two in the west Kerry Gaeltacht, that would facilitate small housing cluster developments with their own water and wastewater services. We will try to encourage that and allow that within our county development plan in these four areas. We are constantly trying to move and think of new ways of supporting our Gaeltacht areas. In addition to the Irish officer, we have employed an Irish development officer for the county, who is looking at the Gaeltacht service town of Cahersiveen. We have taken on this officer at a more senior grade because we need advice on how to develop and move. We as a council need to keep moving to support the Gaeltacht and Gaeltacht communities. That is the remit of the Irish development officer as well.

This has been an especially strong year for the development of Irish. We are all aware that, during Covid, our communications and supports to communities have to be particularly strong. We have been very focused on providing those supports and ensuring all that messaging is being provided through the medium of Irish. We are very much focused on that.

The level of Irish was mentioned. It currently stands at TEG leibhéal B2. I hope that answers the ceist.