Non-Irish speaker ban faces legal test

PLANS by Galway Co Council to ban non-Irish speakers from living in the Gaeltacht areas of the county could be open to legal challenge.

The council is insisting that anyone looking for planning permission in a scenic and highly sought-after area stretching from Barna on the outskirts of the city to Carna, just outside Connemara, must pass an Irish oral test.

Employers in the Connemara Gaeltacht are being told they will only have the support of planning officials if would-be employees are Irish speakers.

But the Equality Authority said the proposal could be discriminatory. If someone feels victimised by such proposed legislation and brings their case to the authority it will examine the plan, a spokesman said.

“On the face of it, this proposal may be discriminatory. But under planning legislation, authorities can also take positive action to promote traditions and language. We would have to look at these proposals in the context of those planning laws,” he said.

The landmark proposals, which are now formally a part of the Co Galway Draft Development Plan for 2003, were drawn up by Connemara councillor Pól O’Foighil and adopted unanimously by the authority. They could become law by next May.

Mr O’Foighil, who is also an elected member of the board of Údaras na Gaeltachta, says the proposals were entirely in keeping with the provisions of the Planning Act of 2000. “People might say it is discriminatory, but I am only discriminating against people who should be speaking Irish but aren’t doing anything to promote the language. Yet they aren’t slow to avail of the grant aid in the area.”

The precise nature of the test and level of fluency required has not yet been worked out, Mr O’Foighil said.