The Coimisineír Teanga, Mr Seán Ó Cuirreáin, has said that "misinformation" over new Irish language legislation may have led to the destruction of a Gaeltacht sign near the Co Galway village of Barna in recent days.
Mr Ó Cuirreáin, a former journalist and the State's first language commissioner, said that the overpainting in white of the road sign was a "reversal of what happened more than 30 years ago when English language signs in the Gaeltacht were destroyed".
"It seems likely to have been destroyed by someone influenced by the media spin on the language legislation rather than by the reality," the commissioner told The Irish Times yesterday.
Mr Ó Cuirreáin was commenting on the reaction to the recent draft order by the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Mr Ó Cuív,which states that maps of Gaeltacht areas must now show the Irish form of the name.
English language media reporting of the decision had implied that road signs in Gaeltacht areas were to be removed and replaced by signs "as Gaeilge".
Mr Ó Cuirreáin said that no changes were to be made, as most of the road signs were already in Irish-only in Gaeltacht areas - and had been since 1970, on foot of a decision by the then Minister for the Environment, Mr Bobby Molloy.
"What happened recently simply was that legal authority was given to these placenames, which simply means that they can now be used on maps by the Ordinance Survey," Mr Ó Cuirreáin said.
"The whole issue of tourists going astray is consequently a figment of the imagination. If they haven't got lost in the past 34 years, then why become concerned now?"
Nor had any regulation been made in relation to Irish-only road warning-signs, such as "Danger", being erected in Gaeltacht areas as a result of the Official Languages Act, Mr Ó Cuirreáin said.
The Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs had an option to make such a ruling under the new legislation, but had not made any such ruling to date, he added.
