Pat Carey (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

As the Deputy will be aware, the scheme of housing grants under the Housing (Gaeltacht) Acts was suspended with effect from 7 April 2009 due to the high level of commitments and the large number of applications on hand. However, applications for new house grants under the scheme were accepted up to 15 June 2009 on condition that the applicants had full planning permission on or before 7 April 2009. While my Department is continuing to process all housing applications that were approved or on hand prior to suspension of the scheme, there is no plan at present to reintroduce the housing grant scheme in the Gaeltacht.

In general terms, the draft 20 year strategy for Irish envisages significant changes in the definition of the Gaeltacht and emphasises the need for language planning and sociolinguistic interventions. I anticipate that the effectiveness of the Gaeltacht housing scheme and other Gaeltacht and Irish language schemes will be considered in that context at the appropriate time.

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