Parts of Galway are set to lose their Gaeltacht status following a dramatic fall-off in the use of Irish in certain areas. The Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs indicated yesterday that areas of Galway city considered part of the Gaeltacht for decades are to be stripped of that status.
However, Mr Ó Cuív said he wanted to give the city a special classification to recognise its vital role in promoting the language.
Suburbs such as Knocknacarra, Tirellan Heights and Ballinfoyle are expected to be excluded from the official Gaeltacht when the boundaries are changed for the first time since 1956. At the moment, only 1 per cent of householders in those suburbs are found to be fluent in the language.
"We have a huge challenge facing us in the Gaeltacht," Mr Ó Cuív said. "There will be significant changes made by me this year and I hope that they will be accepted in a positive spirit and approach rather than a negative one."
The Minister said the decline in the use of Irish in Gaeltacht households had to be taken in the context of a dramatic increase in population in recent years. There was not much of a change in the number of Irish speakers in the designated areas, but in areas such as Galway city, the number of people speaking the native language had not increased in line with the general increase in population.
Latest figures show that only 25 per cent of those eligible in the designated areas were found to have a fluency in Irish, which entitled them to grants under the Labhairt na Gaeilge scheme.
An Irish-language activist, Mr Donncha Ó hEallaithe, has called on Mr Ó Cuív to redraw boundaries to take the decline into account.
Statistics show that only 3 per cent of the Barna and Moycullen populations use Irish.