Údarás na Gaeltachta intends to undertake a "vigorous" range of initiatives to revitalise Irish as the community language of the Gaeltacht.
These will include recruiting a socio-linguistics expert for its language-planning section, establishing 30 Irish language learning and improvement centres in the seven Gaeltacht regions by 2006, and using some surplus State property for community projects, including sites for affordable housing.
The authority also believes that communities in the seven Irish-speaking offshore islands are under severe pressure, due to falling populations, and the "centralised" basis of aid guidelines for investment should be changed to counteract this.
The commitments were made at a briefing in Furbo, Co Galway, yesterday by the Gaeltacht development authority's new chief executive Pádraig Ó hAoláin.
Acknowledging that all the evidence showed the size of Irish language communities was contracting, Mr Ó hAoláin said the authority's challenge was two-fold.
The newly-elected board must "protect and invigorate those communities where Irish is still strong", and "ensure that the public profile of the language can be revised to strong "second-language status" in those areas where it is no longer a community language, he said.
Language initiatives will be aimed specifically at the English-speaking Galway suburbs which are still officially in the Gaeltacht, in co-operation with Galway City Council, County Council and local communities.
Three members of the new board were returned from these "marginal" areas in the largest Gaeltacht region.
Mr Ó hAoláin said that between now and the end of the year, the authority would be consulting all the Gaeltacht communities in Donegal, Mayo, Galway, Kerry, Cork, Waterford and Meath, and drawing up joint action plans which relate to securing the position of Irish or revitalising it where necessary.
It would be inviting communities to participate in developing social infrastructure, and encouraging people to come forward with new business ideas.
A language-planning advisory group would provide ongoing expert guidance to the authority, and a network of support and language promotion would be extended to those with little or no Irish to allow them to play a full part in the community life of the Gaeltacht, he said.
Apart from the language initiatives, the authority's strategic plan includes a range of specific employment targets, including the creation of 800 jobs annually and restoration of full-time employment in the Gaeltacht as a whole to 8,500.
Last year, total full-time employment in client companies stood at 7,507, compared to 7,346 in 2003.
The authority has a property portfolio worth about €140 million, some 20 per cent of which will be sold by the end of 2006. However, the authority will retain any property that is of strategic importance, and intends to look at developing community facilities and infrastructure.
The authority also aims to increase indigenous employment content from 50 per cent to 60 per cent of overall industrial and services employment, and to take a new approach to language development within client companies. It will work in partnership with private companies to try to foster the use of Irish.
Particular emphasis will be placed on creating employment in language-based projects, in local services such as cultural tourism and marine activities; and its says that new opportunities will arise from implementation of the Official Languages Act.
