Irish-speaking communities at risk following new housing plan according to local Sinn Féin TD
By Eoin Maher
The government’s new housing plan places Irish-speaking communities at risk, according to a Sinn Féin TD.
Announced last Tuesday, the new action plan for 300,000 homes before 2030 forgoes annual targets and lacks proposals for Gaeltacht areas.
In a statement as Gaeilge, Galway West TD Mairéad Farrell criticised the government’s inaction on housing in Irish-speaking areas, citing a failure to acknowledge the difficulty in renting or buying a property in the Gaeltacht.
“The people of Connemara and the Aran Islands cannot rent, buy, or build a house of their own,” said Ms Farrell.
“Irish-speaking communities in the Gaeltacht will not survive if there is no affordable housing,” she added.
The new plan, Delivering Homes, Building Communities: An Action Plan on Housing Supply and Targeting Homelessness, pledges €9 million for new homes in 2026 alone, as well as additional investments in infrastructure and transport.
This initiative represents a significant increase over the previous ‘Housing for All’ plan, which produced only 137,000 homes since 2021.
However, despite the Government’s ambitious pledges, no plans for Gaeltacht areas were announced despite repeated promises.
Mary, who has rented in Connemara for over three years, expressed concern over the housing situation in the area.
“A few months back, our landlord served us with an eviction notice. Since then, I’ve been on the lookout for alternatives, but Connemara and Galway in general are extremely limited and, more importantly, far beyond what I can afford,” she said.
“This, coupled with the rising costs of everything everywhere all at once, has made what was an already bad situation worse,” she added.
Since 2019, Connemara has seen an 88% increase in short-term holiday rentals on sites such as Airbnb according to The Ditch, more than twice the national average.
Mary mentioned this, “Property owners prefer to rent their homes to tourists for short-term leases at inflated prices rather than offer them long-term to locals or students.”
“It feels like short-term profit is being prioritised over community needs, and in my opinion, that’s a big part of why the situation is such a disaster,” she explained.
The government’s omission of housing plans for Irish-speaking areas follows condemnation from locals in Connemara criticising the increasing prevalence of short-term holiday lets in the area.
As reported by the Irish Independent in August this year, locals in An Spidéal erected signs outside the town protesting the lack of accommodation on offer.
Despite the new plan, Mary has expressed concerns over the efficacy of the government’s new plan.
“The government has talked about solutions like cost-rental housing. I think there’s been one development in Barna, but that’s nowhere near enough,” she said.
“If there were dedicated housing for locals at fair prices, it would make a huge difference,” Mary added.
