Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

With regard to holiday homes or homes that are not used all year round, I know from friends of mine who are in the Gaeltacht that many of those are family homes of people who have returned to the area. There have been far too many, I get that too, but they are homes. It is not just to say these are people coming from the Gaeltacht or from Germany or France. Many of those homes the Deputy referenced are owned by families who were born in that area and for people who return. That needs to be managed very carefully into the future, however, and lessons need to be learned, especially in one particular county where we are seeing far too many.

I will also mention things like investment in wastewater. Again, we talk to communities and that is something we hear. Representatives from Uisce Éireann appeared before coiste na Gaeilge. I watched those proceedings with interest having a particular focus there, too.

I know we are due to conclude at 5 p.m. I just wanted to mention those things. We are already well covered on the housing strategy with what we have there. There are complexities, whether we like it or not, around the social housing piece, in particular, because it is public housing, around identifying a certain cohort who happen to speak gaeilge and others who do not. We have to be aware, however, and this has been the case in all the other planning we are doing, of being careful about the type of development that happens, particularly within Gaeltacht areas where the language is in a precarious position. That is why I believe the Gaeltacht planning guidelines will be very important. They will become a national planning statement. We are moving on affordable housing within the Gaeltacht. I want to see that happen. It has taken time. There was nothing on the agenda. That is moving. We have seen good social housing delivery in Gaeltacht areas.

I will leave it at that for the moment.