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

I invite the Minister to convince me with respect to priority area plans. I disagree with the Minister - I believe there is a strong case to be made that those areas the State has designated as Gaeltachtaí are different. They are areas in which we want to ensure the people who live there are able to live through the medium of Irish in their everyday lives. We have to find a way to say that in those places, a form of priority should be given to people with competency of a certain level. Otherwise, what is the point of having a Gaeltacht, other than you hope that will happen? I am not necessarily saying it should be a priority - I appreciate the Minister said that. When a local authority says something might be a problem, that does not necessarily mean it is not legally possible. It means it could be a political, organisational or administrative problem. I am interested to know, in the context of the work the Minister is thinking of preparing on priority area plans for Gaeltachtaí, if one is not trying to find some way of prioritising, ring-fencing or carefully managing - he gave the example of four apartments, of which three went to Irish speakers - how does one ensure planning policy underpins the continuation of Irish language-speaking residents in a geographical area? I do not see how it can be done other than by prioritisation or ring-fencing. I appreciate other people will say it is not fair but if we are designating these areas as Gaeltachtaí, there has to be some different treatment of Irish-language speakers in that area than in a non-Gaeltacht. I am genuinely interested because if priority area plans are the way to do this, I am open to being convinced. The Minister seems to be saying there would be priority area plans but there would still be no mechanism - I invite the Minister to explain and convince me. He does not seem to suggest there would be a mechanism.