THE DATE FOR the Údarás na Gaeltachta elections appears to be as far away as ever after the Government published the list of bills on the Oireachtas agenda for the upcoming Dáil term this week.

Although the Údarás na Gaeltachta Bill 2024 is in its fourth stage of progress through the Dáil, the Bill will have to overcome six more stages, the final stage in the Dáil and five stages in the Seanad before it reaches the hands of the President for his assent.

In response to an inquiry from The Journal, a spokesperson for the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht said: 

The Minister will be keeping potential opportunities for elections under review.

“The Gaeltacht Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2024, completed Committee Stage before the Dáil’s summer recess,” they added. 

“The Bill is currently before Dáil Éireann, at the Fourth or Report Stage. The Bill will continue to be taken through the legislative process and the amendments mentioned by the Minister at Committee Stage will be taken forward.”

Elections to elect representative board members for the various Gaeltacht areas were held since the establishment of the agency but were abolished in 2012 as part of the Government’s cost-saving policies.

Various parties have repeatedly pledged to bring back elections to the board of the Authority. In their election manifesto before the general election in November last year, Fianna Fáil promised that the party would hold “direct elections to the board of the Údarás”.

Currently, county councils with Gaeltacht areas appoint representatives – one representative from Kerry, Galway, Mayo and Donegal. County councils with smaller Gaeltacht areas, Cork, Waterford and County Meath, have the opportunity to rotate two-year terms in one seat between each other.

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Under the proposed new legislation, there will be a board of 16 members, 10 of whom will be elected to represent the Gaeltacht communities and the remaining six would be appointed following a public competition.

Earlier this year, the Minister for the Gaeltacht, Dara Calleary, appointed a new board of 12 for a two-year term.

At the time, however, it was anticipated that the election to the Authority’s board under the provisions proposed in the Bill before the Dáil would take place on the same day as the Presidential election, October 24 but this did not materialise.

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