The Gaeltacht Under Threat

Irish Times
27 June 2001

FROM THE SOUTH EAST
Reports by Chris Dooley

- Locals feel plan threatens future of Ring
- Ring 18-house development is opposed
- Report says Gaeltacht funding insufficient

Locals feel plan threatens future of Ring

The survival of one of Ireland's smallest gaeltachtaí is threatened by potential over development, concerned locals will tell the Minister of State for the Gaeltacht, Ms Mary Coughlan, at a meeting today.

An area action plan which aims to preserve the Irish language and protect the visual and cultural amenities of Ring is to be voted on in September by Waterford County Council.

Members of a recently-formed lobby group which meets the Minister today claim the plan, drawn up for the council by CAAS (environmental services), opens the door to housing estates in a hitherto un spoilt rural area.

Opinion is sharply divided as other residents say the CAAS plan has got the correct balance between allowing limited development and protecting the local environment. A decision on the plan was due to be taken next month,
but the deadline for submissions from the public has been put back to July 27th.

Everyone agrees that demand for housing in Ring has dramatically increased and, with traditional local industries in decline, the Irish language is under pressure. The CAAS plan, based in part on the 1999 Waterford county development plan, proposes to concentrate development in four areas, three
of them - Maoil an Choirnigh, Baile na nGall and Helvick - in Ring, and the other in the neighbouring Old Parish, which is also part of the Gaeltacht.

Housing densities of up to eight units per acre are proposed, but on most of the zoned land only three would be allowed. A number of residents fear, however, that even this density will lead to housing estates and the "suburbanisation" of Ring as an extension of Dungarvan.

They claim planning permission recently granted for an 18-house development on a six-acre site at Baile Uí Raghallaigh, overlooking Dungarvan Bay, will set a precedent for similar schemes unless it is overturned by An Bord
Pleanála.

Ms Paula Uí Uallacháin, one of a number of local residents who objected to the development, is also a member of Gaeltacht i mBaol (Gaeltacht in Danger), a recently established community group which meets Ms Coughlan today. "I've no wish to live here if I can't live my life through Irish and I feel as if part of my life is going to be ripped away from me," she says.

The group stresses it is not against outsiders moving in to Ring - Ms Uí Uallacháin herself moved there in the 1970s - but she says the Gaeltacht would not survive large numbers of English-speakers moving in to newly built housing estates.

Supporters of the proposed action plan, however, say three houses per acre will not result in estates. Indeed the CAAS plan specifically states that the rural nature of Ring and Old Parish must be maintained.

Contacted by The Irish Times, however, several people in favour of the action plan declined to put their views on record, saying the debate ran its course when the first draft of the plan was published last year. One of them, Mr Micheál Ó Faoláin, chairman of Comhairle Pobail na Rinne, said local people had been invited to send submissions to the council at a public meeting organised by the comhairle pobail last year.

As a land-owner with an interest in developing his own land, he had not chaired the meeting. The council's senior planner, Mr Denis McCarthy, had attended and everyone had had a chance to make their views known. A Labour councillor, Fiachra Ó Céilleachair , who is an elected member of Údar´ as na Gaeltachta, is highly critical of the action plan and not only
on grounds of potential over development. While housing estates could be built in the areas zoned for development, he says, there are "over-the-top restrictions" on people living outside these areas.

The action plan proposes that residential developments outside the zoned areas should be subject to a "rural, essential, family-housing need policy", restricting eligibility to relations of the land-owner, people who work in the area or people from the area who wish to return home to live on
family lands.

Mr Ó Céilleachair wants a continuation of single-site, small-scale
development subject to the normal planning conditions. A in the Dungarvan electoral area, however, support the CAAS plan. One of them, Ms Nuala Ryan of Fianna Fáil, said three houses per acre was a satisfactory compromise. Initially it had been proposed to restrict development to one house per acre and a number of local people had complained that this was too
restrictive. In her view three could not be considered high density.

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Ring 18-house development is opposed

Objectors to an 18-house development in the Ring Gaeltacht, which was granted planning permission this month, claim it will lead to the destruction of the rural fabric of the area.

Local residents who opposed the development at Baile Uí Raghallaigh plan to appeal the decision to An Bord Pleanála. Cllr Fiachra Ó Céilleachair (Labour) says he will also be lodging an appeal.

He told The Irish Times that two developers wanted to build similarly sized "housing estates" at three other locations in Ring and, once one had been passed, it would be impossible to prevent others.

Mr Mick Ó hUallachá in, who lives adjacent to the Baile Uí Raghallaigh site, claimed the Gaeltacht itself was under threat. "Once you allow housing estates to go up that's the end of the rural community and it's also the end of the Gaeltacht," he said.

The developer, Mr Seán Halpin from Waterford, has disputed the assertions of objectors, including Mr Ó hUallacháin and his wife, Paula. In correspondence with Waterford County Council, Mr Halpin's architect, Mr Muiris Ó Criostóir, said the design was in keeping with the traditions of the area.

The development was low-density and would not obstruct the "magnificent views" of Dungarvan Bay for pedestrians in the area, he added.

The 18 houses on six acres match the density of three houses per acre proposed in a draft action area plan to be voted on by Waterford County Council in September.

Although the plan has not been adopted yet, Mr Ó Criostóir said all aspects of the draft were taken into account. Permission for the development was granted by the council on June 13th.

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Report says Gaeltacht funding insufficient

Government funding has been "totally insufficient" in dealing with the infrastructural deficit in the Gaeltacht areas, according to a consultancy report on the future of Ring and Old Parish.

The report by CAAS (Environmental Services) says Gaeltacht areas face an uncertain future despite the economic boom. Its proposals on future housing development in the Ring and Old Parish Gaeltacht have divided opinion in the local community, but housing is just one issue addressed by the document, published as a draft area action plan.

While population levels in the Gaeltacht areas increased from 83,000 in 1991 to 86,000 five years later, they still lag behind the rest of the State in terms of economic and infrastructural development, the plan says.

It says the Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands operates a number of schemes in the Gaeltacht and the Government has made additional money available for these schemes in recent years.

The report says, however, that this sum is insufficient to deal with the infrastructural deficit in the Gaeltacht, and continual endeavours are made to identify opportunities to address it. Ring Gaeltacht, it points out, does not have Objective 1 status for EU funding purposes and faces a number of threats.

These include rising land and house prices which could drive people from an area which has a population of just 1,500, about two-thirds of whom live in Ring and the rest in the neighbouring Old Parish. A decline in the number of Irish speakers and an increase in non-Irish speakers could lead to a loss of its Gaeltacht designation, the action plan warns.

On the other hand the Ring Gaeltacht has one of the most popular and respected Irish colleges in Coláiste na Rinne, a good socio-economic mix and a community determination to preserve the Irish language.

The plan sets out community objectives, suggested by locals at an open day last year, including the protection of the area's rural character and archaeological heritage; increased measures to prevent littering, polluting and dumping; and the exercising of "strict control" over residential developments.

Road capacity, visual amenity, the provision of housing for local people and the maintenance of an Irish-speaking population should be regarded.

It proposes the funneling of developments into four areas and the restriction of density to three houses per acre. Some locals argue that even this level will destroy the rural fabric of the area. They say Ring does not have the water, road and sewerage services to support it.

There are concerns about the pressure and quality of water supply, while the road network is "generally poor" and not capable of catering for large-scale development.

The Department of the Environment and Local Government has, however, approved a major investment scheme in sewage treatment for the Dungarvan area which will cover the areas of Ring earmarked for development.