The Government has been urged to consider the dilution of the Irish language in the Conamara Gaeltacht when ruling on proposals to place more than 80 International Protection applicants in a Carna hotel.

Fine Gael Senator Seán Kyne, Leader of the Seanad, said “there should be cognisance taken of the impact on the Irish language” when IPAS (International Protection Accommodation Service) considers a proposal to locate 84 asylum seekers in Carna Bay Hotel.

“If you were bringing in forty houses – building social houses or affordable houses (in Carna) – you’d have to take cognisance of the Irish language, and they’d have to be available to Irish speakers,” said the former Government Chief Whip.

The issue came to a head on Tuesday night when rumours spread on social media that IP applicants were being bussed to the hotel in Carna – and up to 100 locals gathered in protest.

They did not arrive, and Galway West TDs Mairead Farrell and John Connolly both insisted they had been assured by the Department of Integration that no decision will be made until July on whether or not the hotel will be accepted as an IPAS centre.

As reported a fortnight ago by the Connacht Tribune, this began when more than 200 people from Iorras Aithneach, which includes Carna and Cill Chiaráin, gathered to voice concerns about plans by the hotel’s owner, a Cork businessman, to lease the property to IPAS.

Locals this week said that opposition had hardened.

A spokesperson for Grúpa Gníomh Ostán Cuan Charna said there were eighty people living in Carna village itself – all native Irish speakers – and the arrival of 84 International Protection applicants would dilute its Irish-speaking status.

Caption: The Carna Bay Hotel.

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