Dingle's Gaeltacht status uncertain

Dingle's Gaeltacht status uncertain

Dingle could lose its Gaeltacht status if the criteria suggested by a new linguistic study, which was released this week, is implemented.
A report on the status of the Irish language, A Comprehensive Linguistic Study of the Use of Irish in the Gaeltacht was commissioned by the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs in 2004.
Its findings have now been examined by Connemara lecturer Donncha O hEallaithe and the implications arising from the study could signal the end of Dingle's all-Irish status. If strict linguistic criteria were to be implemented, as laid out by the study, the population of designated areas in Ireland could drop by 51,000, as areas previously recognised as Gaeltacht areas, such as Dingle, Belmullet in Mayo, Galway City and parts of Donegal would not fall within the guidelines designating a Gaeltacht. According to the study, the current national Gaeltacht population stands at 95,500. If the new criteria is implemented, that would drop to 44,000. This would deem areas such as Dingle ineligible for certain types of grant aid allocated to official all-Irish areas. In addition, infrastructural aids for housing, roadworks and marine facilities could be jeopardised. Civil servants such as teachers and members of the Gardai are also afforded additional payments for the execution of their duties in Gaeltacht areas.Data was compiled using statistics compiled by the the Central Statistics Office and from the Dept of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs in assessing each Gaeltacht area.
During Mr. Ó'hEallaithe's examination of the data he found that only 17,000 Irish speakers nationwide fall into Category A., the strongest Irish-speaking areas. 10,000 live in Category B, while 17,000 live in areas where Irish is used on a sparse basis. Consequently, 51,000 individuals, currently living in so-called Gaeltachts, would no longer satisfy the criteria, as Irish would no longer be deemed the primary community language. In addition the influx of immigrant workers means that a large proportion of those living and working in Gaeltacht areas, such the West Kerry Gaeltacht, means that many workers in construction, bars, restaurants and hotels, have no experience or knowledge of the Irish language. A recent census survey indicated that up to 2% of Kerry's population is Polish-born however this does not account for the thousands who travel to the county in the summer months to engage in casual labour.