Council 'signed up' to order on Dingle renaming

COUNCIL documents have revealed that the local authority in Kerry fully signed up to the controversial legislation which resulted in Dingle being officially renamed An Daingean.

A copy of the document, published earlier this year, shows the county council made a commitment to comply with the Placenames Order (Gaeltacht) 2004 by the end of this year.

Section 9 of the Official Languages Act 2003 gave Minister Eamon Ó Cuiv power to make a Placenames Order, which declares the Irish language version of the placename takes precedence.

On March 28 this year, Mr Ó Cuiv signed the order that meant the name An Daingean, and not Dingle, would appear on ordnance survey maps and on all signposts in Kerry.

A council spokesperson confirmed it agreed to comply with the order. The commitment is contained in a 17-page document seen by the Irish Examiner, in which the local authority states that Gaeltacht names are being used in the register of electors mailing list.

It sets out a target for the local authority to "ensure compliance" with the order and sets a timescale of 2005 for completing this process.

However, moves are afoot by Kerry county councillors to reverse the order.

Last month, councillors brought four notices of motion. Two sought that signs for Dingle should be bilingual. One, brought by the Healy-Rae brothers, called for the new name to be scotched. Another, by Gaeltacht councillor Seamus 'Cosaí' Fitzgerald, called for a plebiscite.

According to the council's legal department, a plebiscite cannot be held under the Local Government Act 2001 as the relevant section has not yet started. But under the Local Government Act 1946, if the majority of Dingle people agree in a plebiscite, councillors would have to apply to the Government to make an order reversing the name change.