Over half of homes in Gweedore and Downings peninsula now holiday homes

A number of TDs raised the prevalence of holiday homes in Gaeltacht areas at a meeting of the Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

Social Democrat TD Cian O’Callaghan pointed to the high concentration of homes around the Downings and in the Bunbeg and Derrybeg area many of which, he said, ‘are empty for much of the year’.

“In Gaoth Dobhair, County Donegal, 57 per cent of homes are holiday homes while in Ros Goill, 58 per cent are holiday homes,” he told the committee.

Deputy O’Callaghan said it was a similar picture in other Gaeltacht areas in Mayo, Galway and Kerry.

In West Kerry the concentrations of holiday homes were as follows – Doire Fhíonáin (65 per cent), Cathair Dónall (58 per cent) and Baile an Sceilg (55 per cent); in Conemara – Cloch na Rón (48 per cent) and Binn an Choire (39 per cent); and in Achill – Dooega (43 per cent).

Mr. O’Callaghan said: “Some of those holiday homes would have Irish-language speakers in them, but many are English-language speakers. I do not advocate for a second to say one cannot have English-language speakers in Gaeltacht communities, or holiday homes or short-term lets, but this is an issue.

"Planning failures have meant that people with the language in the Gaeltacht area are not able to get housing.

"This is undermining both the local community, since it is not able to get people with skills such as physiotherapists and so on to live in the community and the viability of these Gaeltacht areas.”

Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh, who also referred to the figures contained in a report by Tuairisc.ie about the amount of holiday homes in Gaeltacht areas, said: "Nobody wants to take all those holiday homes away from the people who own them at this stage, but there has to be some approach to ensure that those who want to live in an area can do so and are not squeezed out.”

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