Ms Valerie Loughnane:

We have a policy in our plan that facilitates that. If somebody can prove they will add to, enhance and use Irish through their everyday life, even though they may not be native to that Gaeltacht but may be native to another Gaeltacht elsewhere in the country and can satisfy the criteria, we allow people to be granted individual one-off houses. When we spoke about the other enurements, we were talking about them in estates. There is a policy in our plan that allows native Irish speakers an opportunity to live in the Gaeltacht, perhaps not the Gaeltacht from which they originated, and this also applies to speakers who are proficient in Irish.

For clarity, there are Gaeltacht areas around Galway city that are within Galway County Council's jurisdiction, but are under severe urban pressure. Although they may be in the Gaeltacht, there may be situations where there are other things that are at odds with that. We would have to look at the idea in the sustainable rural housing guidelines and so on. There may be other issues which mean a native Irish speaker would not be able to achieve planning for a one-off house in a location around the city even though it is in the Gaeltacht.

However, in other Gaeltacht and strong Gaeltacht areas, we have a policy in our plan that facilitates that. Over the years, we have facilitated a number of Irish speakers for individual houses in the Gaeltacht area, where they have proved they will enhance and carry not just the Irish language, but the Irish culture as well.