Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 48: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs the extent of the work of the placenames branch to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5515/08]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The Placenames Branch of my Department undertakes research in order to establish the correct Irish language forms of the placenames of Ireland and to publish them for official and public use. The Branch has provided Irish forms for placenames in all counties. The most public manifestation of its work can be seen on the Irish versions of placenames on the bilingual road signs throughout the country.

The Branch is engaged in a comprehensive research programme to provide Irish versions for all placenames in the State on a county basis. Seven counties have been completed and published under this programme to date, namely, Counties Kilkenny, Limerick, Louth, Monaghan, Offaly, Tipperary and Waterford. Research has been completed on Counties Dublin, Galway and Wexford and will be completed in Counties Cork, Clare and Leitrim by 2009. Substantial research has been undertaken on the placenames of the other counties and these counties will be completed in the medium future.

The recent work of the Branch also includes providing Irish language versions of the administrative placenames in the Gaeltacht areas of Cork, Donegal, Galway, Kerry, Mayo, Meath and Waterford and it has just completed work on some 5,500 non-administrative names in these areas, that is, names shown on Ordnance Survey Ireland's large-scale maps. The Branch has responsibility for preparing draft Placenames Orders for An Coimisiún Logainmneacha, who in turn advise me under section 5 of the Official Languages Act 2003. I have made ten Placenames Orders on the advice of the Commission to date and three further orders are planned for 2008, namely, for Counties Dublin and Galway (except for Gaeltacht areas), and for minor and non-administrative placenames in Gaeltacht areas.

The Placenames Branch is also engaged in a joint project with Ordnance Survey Ireland, with the collaboration of local authorities, to provide authoritative Irish versions of approximately 35,000 streetnames in cities and towns throughout the State. Irish versions have been provided for almost 20,000 streetnames to date. This two-year programme is due for completion at the end of this year.

In addition to its programmes, the Branch researches and provides Irish language versions of placenames to customers on request each year. The Branch is responsible for providing Irish language placenames under the CLÁR bilingual signage scheme. This scheme, which is sponsored by my Department, encourages and funds local communities to erect signs showing the names of their townlands in Irish and English in CLÁR areas.

The Placenames Branch publishes the results of its work on a county basis in the Liostaí Logainmneacha series, County Tipperary being the most recent volume. Volumes for other counties will be published as Placenames Orders are made for these. A new enlarged version of Gasaitéar na hÉireann / Gazetteer of Ireland will be published this year. The Branch also has a programme to publish in book form the evidence for, and explanations of, the names it has researched. The Branch recently published a volume on certain aspects of the placenames of County Tipperary (Logainmneacha na hÉireann II: Cill i logainmneacha Co. Thiobraid Árann, Pádraig Ó Cearbhaill, 2007) and two further volumes are in preparation covering the placenames of County Wexford and placenames in one area in County Cork.

The Placenames Branch is currently working in collaboration with Fiontar in Dublin City University to develop an online searchable national database of placenames. A pilot version of the database will be available to a limited number of users in early April next and it is planned to have the full database available to the public by November of this year. The database will contain information on over 100,000 names, including the names of all the administrative units in the country, a certain number of non-administrative placenames, and all the streetnames within the State.

All the Irish versions of placenames that have been determined by the Placenames Branch to date, including both those that have been given legal status by Placenames Orders and those that are not yet covered, will be given; an estimated 40,000 Irish forms in total. The Irish versions of the streetnames will also be given. The evidence on which the Irish forms are based is being included and this will be made available to the public at a later date. In addition, the database will also contain a sound recording of each placename. The database should prove to be an invaluable asset for all who require not only the Irish forms of placenames, but also general information on the placenames of the country.