(Seo alt ónár bhfoireann Gaeltachta. Is féidir an bunleagan as Gaeilge a léamh anseo.)

MORE THAN FORTY activists from Connemara gathered at the headquarters of the Gaeltacht Department at lunchtime today to express their dissatisfaction with Minister Dara Calleary’s failure to achieve the targets he set out when he was appointed a year ago.

And while the letter the Bánú group gave to the Department contained many complaints, it was also clear that the Mayo man was being given a second chance to take action in the coming 12 months.

BÁNÚ said it had congratulated the Minister when he was appointed and said then that they were pleased with what he had said about ‘tackling the housing problem in the Gaeltacht’.

Handing over the letter of complaint to the Department, Donncha Ó hÉalaithe, chairman of the campaign group, told The Journal that the group hoped the Minister would pay attention to what was said in the document.

“We would be hopeful that attention will be paid to what was said to him in the letter … that we will see action,” he said. “We are looking forward to action rather than talk in the next year.”

They also said they were pleased to see that Údarás na Gaeltachta could be given a role in tackling the housing shortage and pointed out that this problem was pushing the next generation of parents, who could raise their children with Irish, out of the Gaeltacht.

Although you managed to secure a significant increase for the Department of the Gaeltacht in the estimates for 2026, it is not clear that you requested any capital money in the estimates to be spent on housing in the Gaeltacht, despite the crisis and the promises in the Government Programme.

“In fact, only €16,204,000 of capital money was made available to Údarás na Gaeltachta in the estimates: €27,000,000 was made available to Údarás twenty years ago in 2006, to be spent on capital projects in the estimates.”

BÁNÚ also said that if the Minister had made that amount of capital money available to Údarás na Gaeltachta in the estimates this year, it would ‘allow Údarás to prepare serviced sites and purchase additional land if necessary, in areas where Údarás does not currently have suitable land’.

Speaking to The Journal, Ó hÉallaithe had this to say: 

The Gaeltacht received more support from the Westminster Government through the Congested Districts Board than it is receiving now.

Disappointment was also expressed about the delay in planning guidelines for the Gaeltacht that were announced in November in the National Housing Plan that was unveiled that month. These guidelines had been promised in detail and frequently from 2022 but it was indicated in the housing document that a National Planning Statement for the Gaeltacht, the new name for the guidelines, would not be available until 2027.

“As a result, there is a risk that new Development Plans will be prepared by planning authorities, in the absence of any guidelines for the Gaeltacht. We are now told that the promised National Planning Statement on housing in the Gaeltacht will have to wait until 2027,” the letter said.

The Minister was praised for doing ‘good work’ in bringing the Údarás na Gaeltachta Bill to committee stage in the Dáil. The enactment of this Bill would ensure that there would once again be elections to put elected members on the board of the Authority, as there were until 2012.

“Doesn’t your Department want elections to be held this year to enable the people of the Gaeltacht to choose their own representatives on the Board of Údarás na Gaeltachta?,” they asked in the letter.

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In response to the protest, the Department issued a statement to The Journal highlighting the achievements of the Minister during his first year, with particular emphasis on the additional funding he secured for the Department in the Budget.

A Department spokesperson had this to say on housing matters:

Housing issues are a matter for the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht has no role in housing policy.

“That said, housing in the Gaeltacht is a very important issue for Minister Calleary and he has had a number of meetings with the Minister for Housing, James Browne TD, to discuss this,” said a Department spokesperson

Referring to the challenge given to the Department regarding the conduct of the Údarás na Gaeltachta elections, a Department spokesperson acknowledged that the main business of the Údarás na Gaeltachta Bill was to re-legislate the elections, and that amendments were currently being made to the Bill which would allow the Údarás ‘to sell or otherwise dispose of land to an approved housing body or housing authority for the purpose of providing housing in the Gaeltacht’.

“Údarás na Gaeltachta is carrying out important work in the interests of providing employment for the Gaeltacht community and it would not be appropriate to do anything which would diminish the organisation’s emphasis on fulfilling that role.”

The Journal’s Gaeltacht initiative is supported by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.