Kerry Council Charged by Ireland’s Language Commissioner – Failure to Protect Gaelic From Property Developers

The Office of the Irish Language Commissioner (An Coimisinéir Teanga) has charged the Kerry County Council with failure to take action to protect Gaelic in the Kerry Gaeltacht from the ill effects of property development. The Council failed to ensure compliance with statute attached to planning permission for a housing development in the West Kerry Gaeltacht. Dingle is the largest town in the area.

The Commissioner statement reads: “This is a very important investigation due to the link between the future of the Irish language as a community language in the Gaeltacht and the impact that an increase of non-­Irish speakers could have on the protection of the language. The investigation demonstrated that Kerry County Council did not implement the relevant language provision − a language provision confirmed by law to protect the use of Irish in the Gaeltacht. This was obviously a very serious breach.”

The website “Irish Legal News” also reported that there will be long term consequences for the Kerry Council:  “ The Language Commissioner has recommended that Kerry County Council “prepare and establish, to my satisfaction, procedures to be following in any case where a language requirement is attached to planning permission for a housing development in the Gaeltacht, in order to ensure that the language requirement is implemented effectively. The Commissioner also recommended that the County Council “inform my Office, for the next five years, of any planning permission granted in the Kerry Gaeltacht for large planning applications or applications in respect of three dwellings or more”.

Read The Full Article Here: https://www.irishlegal.com/article/local-authority-breached-law-by-failing-to-implement-language-condition-on-planning-permission