Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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249. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the progress made on implementing all aspects of the 20-Year Strategy for the Irish Language 2010 - 2030 that are relevant to his Department and bodies under his remit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8623/19]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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As set out in the National Planning Framework (NPF), published in 2018, the language planning process, as prescribed in the Gaeltacht Act 2012, represents the primary driver in support of the Government’s commitment to the achievement of the objectives set out in the 20 Year Strategy for the Irish Language 2010 to 2030. Objective 29 of the NPF makes provision for supporting the implementation of language plans in Gaeltacht Language Planning Areas, Gaeltacht Service Towns and Irish Language Networks.

My Department has also produced planning guidelines, ‘Development Plans, Guidelines for Planning Authorities’, to address the mandatory objective of the Planning & Development Act for “the protection of the linguistic and cultural heritage of the Gaeltacht, including the promotion of Irish as the community language, where there is a Gaeltacht in the area of the development plan”. These guidelines refer to areas such as linguistic and cultural heritage, the needs of the community in land-use terms for housing, community facilities, employment, tourism and design, including advertising and signage. By way of example, the Galway County Development Plan 2015-21 incorporated a variation to include a specific Gaeltacht area plan.

In June of last year, the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht published an , which aims to accelerate the achievement of the objectives set out in the 20-Year Strategy. The Action Plan is aligned with the objectives of the Strategy and also with relevant Government policies and programmes such as Project Ireland 2040 which encompasses the NPF.

Finally, in line with the Gaeltacht Act 2012, my Department continues to support staffing sanction requests from local authorities for bilingual officers.

Arrangements have been put in place by each agency under the aegis of my Department to facilitate the provision of information directly to members of the Oireachtas. The contact email addresses for each agency are set out as follows: