There are five locations in the Gaeltacht in Co Galway where affordable homes can be built, an Oireachtas committee has heard.
The Housing Committee heard from representatives from the Department of Housing, local authorities and Údarás na Gaeltachta, which is responsible for developing Irish-speaking communities.
Damien Mitchell, director of services for housing at Galway County Council, said in the Galway Gaeltacht region, Baile Chláir was the only place with affordable purchase homes.
In response to a question by Social Democrats Housing Spokesperson Rory Hearne, he said there were 62 affordable purchase homes completed in Baile Chláir and another 66 under construction.
"The issues that we've had with affordable housing up to now have been the viability of affordable housing and the requirement to be able to offer those houses 15% below the open market value," he told the committee.
"Coupled with that, we have only five locations presently in the Gaeltacht area where we can build, where there are municipal wastewater treatment plants, so that is severely limiting where we can actually construct multi-unit developments.
"We're looking to do mixed ten-year developments, where you have a cross between social and affordable housing," he added.
Rónán Gallagher, assistant secretary at the Department of Housing and head of the department's affordable housing division, said there was "nothing" in the affordable housing schemes that bars development in the Gaeltacht.
"There are national schemes for the most part, and then we work with the local authorities for them to identify the need - it's not for the department to determine what that need might be in each local authority.
"There's nothing in schemes that bars various schemes from being developed in the Gaeltacht, including on the affordable side.
"I would say, in principle, that the affordability constraints are bigger in the urban areas, and that's not to understate what they might be in pockets."
He said the vacant property regeneration grant has been "really successful" in bringing properties back into use in the Gaeltacht regions and on the islands.
Mr Gallagher said that 4,500 refurbishment grants were paid out by the end of 2025, with more than 300 relating to the Gaeltacht and the islands and Donegal being the relevant location for more than half of those 300.
Aodhán Mac Cormaic, of the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht, said that in 2025, there were 457 planning permissions granted out of 767 applications in the Donegal Gaeltacht.
There were 324 planning permissions granted out of 376 applications in the Galway Gaeltacht region.
Responding to Donegal TD Charles Ward, who suggested that modular homes should be built in the Gaeltacht, he said €3.1 million was paid out in 2024 and 2025 through the vacant property refurbishment grants for Gaeltacht regions.
"So there is something happening, so I don't agree with you that there is stagnation," he said as Gaeilge.
Tomás Ó Siocháin, head of Údarás na Gaeltachta, said there was "no block from their side" in relation to providing housing in the Gaeltacht, but said that there are blockages in terms of water and wastewater supplies.
He said their aim was to look at smaller schemes, in areas where primary schools and rural areas are under pressure, and to build new communities that would increase the number of Irish speakers.
Senator Aubrey McCarthy said: "If the young Irish-speaking families cannot build or live in the Gaeltacht area, then it would look like the State would have to accept that the housing system was going against its own Irish language policy."
Claragh Mulhern, acting principal planning adviser at the Department of Housing, said a new national planning statement in relation to rural housing will be issued in the first half of this year, and a national planning statement on the Gaeltacht will be issued next year.
