Mr. Kevin Kelly:

I will make two points in response to Deputy Calleary's questions. First, in Mayo, we can facilitate a planning application through the process, but it would be with the assistance of staff who could transact business as Gaeilge. It is probably fair to say that in my experience in local authorities, there are not enough staff who can deal fluently and efficiently in Irish to do the business as Gaeilge. The Deputy has pointed out that much work has been completed in Mayo County Council over a number of years. It still leaves the scenario where staff are hesitant and lacking in confidence in those interactions, especially on technical matters relating to planning applications and so forth.

While we would be able to accommodate it, we are not at the level of proficiency in order to make that a good service for the members of the public. As I understand it, a working group has been established and met previously on planning matters in Gaeltacht areas throughout the Gaeltacht counties, which included our department and Údarás na Gaeltachta. That might not have met recently, but the idea behind that was to ensure there would be some degree of consistency of approach on similar issues throughout local authority areas in which there are Gaeltacht areas.