Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Exactly, but they are not legally permissible. Let us not go back to the rural planning guidelines. We will fight that one out separately. Has there been any attempt in any other EU jurisdiction to find some similar mechanism, particularly in countries that have minority or national languages they are trying to revive?

This amendment speaks more broadly to that cluster of issues I raised earlier. If it is not possible for Irish language speakers to get housing and accommodation within Gaeltachtaí, they will not survive. I know the Minister will not accept the amendment but this is an opportunity to at least have some exchange on the sentiment, ideas and policy behind it to get a sense of the direction of travel. Even if we have the planning guidelines, and the Gaeltacht planning guidelines are published in the lifetime of the Government, go out for public consultation, come back and are introduced as a national planning policy statement, there will still be a need for housing plans or strategies, particularly for the Gaeltachtaí. I am interested to know, not necessarily the grounds of the Minister's opposition to the text of the amendment, which he outlined to others, but where the Government's thinking and Departmental advice on how, in the context of the Gaeltacht planning guidelines being published and enacted, to meet the housing needs of Irish language speakers in those areas.