Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will deal with Deputy O'Callaghan's amendments, going from last to first. He referred to empty properties. As he is aware, we are waiting on the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media to bring legislation forward. We will provide guidelines in this area. I am sorry, the legislation is with the European Commission.

As a general observation, there is nothing to stop local authorities from putting provisions concerning the Irish language and linguistic impact statements in their development plans. There is nothing to stop them doing so legally, if they wish to. On an equally general note, just looking through the legislation, I have asked the officials to examine section 83(1) regarding matters to which planning authorities and the commission shall have regard. We will have a look at this section to see if there may be anything in the context of what the Deputy is proposing. We will look at this aspect before Report Stage.