A formal petition has been sent to the leaders of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, Micheál Martin and Simon Harris, to highlight how the lack of housing for Irish speakers in Gaeltacht areas is getting worse.
The petition was sent by the campaign group Bánú, which said the situation is putting Irish as a living community language in jeopardy.
"Theres a housing problem all over the country, but in the Gaeltacht area the housing crisis is also a socio-linguistic crisis because the effect of a lack of housing for young adults who'd like to settle down means that the next generation, the next cohort of Irish-speaking parents are being forced out of the area," said Bánú chair, Donncha Ó hÉallaithe.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Drivetime, he said that a lack of long-term rental properties, second-hand houses and a difficulty in securing planning permission are among the issues feeding into the crisis.
The petition called on Mr Martin and Mr Harris to put measures in the next programme for government to "have a reset" on housing in Gaeltacht areas.
The party leaders were urged to give Údarás na Gaeltachta statutory powers and the resources to allow it engage in housing provision.
Údarás na Gaeltachta should also be able to set up an approved housing agency for the Gaeltacht, the petition added.
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"Údarás na Gaeltachta has been very, very successful in providing and creating employment in the Gaeltacht.
"It builds factories, it sets up industrial estates, there’s 9,500 people employed in Údarás na Gaeltachta-client companies at the moment. That’s an amazing achievement," Mr Ó hÉallaithe said.
"However, a lot of those people employed in those companies are being employed so that they keep them in the Gaeltacht, but if they can’t find housing in the Gaeltacht, they have to move out."
Mr Ó hÉallaithe said the areas are not being served by local authorities in housing plans.
"Galway County Council for example, under their plan to build houses, don’t intend to build any houses in the area between Bearna and Carna where there’s a population of about 12,000 people. But they are building houses on the edge of the Gaeltacht.
"So if people want or are depending on a local authority house, they have to move outside the Gaeltacht for it."
The "linguistic erosion in Gaeltacht areas needs to be halted as a matter of urgency" and the provision of housing for Irish speakers was key, Mr Ó hÉallaithe said.
