Ireland South MEP, Cynthia Ní Mhurchú, has said native Irish speakers, gaeilgeoirs, are being pushed out of Gaeltacht areas because local authorities are refusing planning permissions to build on family lands.

She has said that an overly rigid planning system in Gaeltacht areas is a direct threat to the future of the Irish language.

There are seven counties in Ireland which contain a Gaeltacht area, most of which have seen year-on-year declines in the numbers who speak Irish on a daily basis, according to the MEP.

Ní Mhurchú said planning permission is becoming impossible for young native speakers who have land but are refused permission to build in Gaeltacht areas.

The Fianna Fáil MEP, in collaboration with Conradh na Gaeilge, is supporting a formal petition to the European Parliament on the housing crisis and how it is impacting on Gaeltacht areas.

As part of this petition, Gaeltacht residents will travel to the European Parliament to address MEPs and EU Commission officials in May on the issues they face, one of which is county councils operating an overly restrictive policy in Gaeltacht areas. 

Ní Mhurchú has called for the long-awaited Gaeltacht planning guidelines to be published.

She said she hopes these guidelines will allow local authorities to be more flexible in granting planning permission in Gaeltacht areas – in particular for fluent Irish speakers.

She wants these guidelines to allow local authorities to widen the scope of their planning approvals to include fluent Irish speakers in the same category as having a 'local needs' requirement in all Gaeltacht related planning decisions. 

Ní Mhurchú has also called on her colleagues in government to immediately introduce special development plans for Gaeltacht areas with specific housing targets.