Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have some comments on this grouping. I have spoken on all of the other groupings as well because I have submitted quite a lot of amendments that deal with the Irish language. These relate to the national planning statement and seek to ensure that, in drawing the statement up, due regard is given to the Irish language and the cultural and linguistic heritage of Gaeltacht areas. I have submitted a number of amendments, which I will speak to. These are Nos. 197, 198, 199, 205, 213 and 218. Some are simple and I have addressed them with the Minister at an earlier stage and know his position on them.

Amendment No. 218 seeks to insert into the considerations for the issuance of the national planning statement additional considerations that need to be taken into account. In that amendment, we are asking for the protection of linguistic and cultural heritage.

Amendment No. 222 is on a separate issue and I wish to concentrate more on it. It relates to the need for night venues to be protected, recognised and regulated.

Members might think that is a strange one to put into a national planning statement. The problem, which we have had in this city in particular, is there is not a recognition or designation and then all of a sudden a night venue, around which a whole cultural activity or cultural quarter has built up, closes down, never to return. That affects a city. The same is true in rural Ireland. I have seen venues dotted throughout the country which were very big in their time but now just sit there. Some of them are empty, unused and derelict. There needs to be some way we can, in our planning into the future, look to ensure there is some type of designation or strategy around the regulation and location of venues. They add to our cultural life, but also to our tourism. We do not want to be without those venues and that cultural draw. The Cobblestone is a venue in this city which was under threat. There are other venues in the same situation. Fortunately, the Cobblestone is still in situthanks to a campaign, but other venues have disappeared despite having huge followings and benefiting the communities around them. There is also the other side. When we are considering venues we must also consider the population around them, and so on. We must come up with some type of strategy and look at that.

The other amendment in this grouping I want to deal with is amendment No. 224. It would insert the restoration of the Irish language as a spoken language as one of the overarching objectives we seek to include in the Minister's determinations in order that due regard will be given to that issue, as well as the other issues outlined in this section, before the national planning statement is issued.

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