Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Labróidh mé as Béarla mar gheall gur bhain Caroline úsáid as. I get all that and I get the need for extra grants to protect the 700 structures, but Galway has a unique status. Galway is the capital city of the Gaels. It is a regional city but it is also the capital city of Gaeilge and an Ghaeltacht. It is all very well to encourage and facilitate commuting, but let us also have the ambition to encourage people who use Irish as their daily language to live in the city. If Galway City Council led on that, it would give courage to other cities to do similar. It is all very well to depend on the county Gaeltacht but that faces different planning challenges, as we have heard from witnesses from the county council. What we as a committee are trying to do is look at the blockages with regard to the Gaeltacht, Gaeilge and its daily usage. Planning has been identified as one of those blockages. We need the city council of the capital of our Gaeltacht region to be ambitious and push the boat out to facilitate, encourage and go the extra mile. I know it has done that with Coláiste na Coiribe and other educational projects, but let us go over and above that to allow people who use Gaeilge as their daily language of choice to live in the city. Let us go over and above and push the boat out to be the city council that wants a predominantly Irish-speaking city. Of course, every other culture would be part of that as well.

How many planners on the city council have Irish and use it as their daily language when engaging with potential clients?