Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for that. I will also make some general observations. I am sure the Minister is aware of the protest outside the Oireachtas yesterday in relation to some of these debates. Increasingly, when we are engaging with the people who live in or want to live in the Gaeltacht, their representative organisations or the planning officers, the issue of housing is becoming central to those discussions. It would be interesting to hear if there are plans or if work is under way with the national planning policy statement on these related matters. That was one of the Minister's arguments as to why he would not support a previous set of amendments. He might have said it already, but if the Minister could clarify this it would be very interesting. Is it his hope to have one before the end of his term of office?

The Gaeltacht planning guidelines and the rural guidelines are going to have to interact and be consistent with each other, and they are key. There is also a wider set of issues. The Minister said he has been listening to the debates. Other members spoke about the impact of mainstream planning permissions at the edge of or within Gaeltacht areas, along with the issues of short-term letting and the inability of the current system facilitate enforcement in that regard. I would also like the Minister to consider three other specific areas, which I am sure he already has. These are affecting conversations many of us have with the Irish language planning officers. How can we best tailor existing Government funding streams for the delivery of social and affordable housing along with and aligned to Gaeltacht planning guidelines and the rural planning guidelines when they are produced, specifically to assist rural countryside areas to be able to sustain and grow populations but in a manner that is consistent with good sustainable planning?

I have had some very constructive conversations with the Office of the Planning Regulator about this matter. If, for example, clusters are the most sustainable forms of rural countryside settlement patterns and if we want to sustain and grow populations in rural areas that are in decline or in Gaeltacht areas that are stagnating or in decline, we are going to have to think about how we can mobilise the affordable housing fund or cost-rental equity loans in a very different way from that originally intended. These funds could become useful tools for ensuring that we do not have stand-offs, as we had with Breanndán Ó Beaglaíoch in the context of a long running planning dispute, where the State and its institutions end up in conflict with the individuals who want to live in Gaeltacht areas. We could use those funds in really innovative ways.

One area that will require some consideration is land. Consider a rural countryside area, and particularly one that is under pressure from an urban settlement, and the fact the individuals and their families who want to live there have land holdings that are separate. How do we facilitate the construction of settlements? I have often thought that the affordable housing fund or some other such instrument could be used to buy, sell and consolidate land holdings to ensure good sustainable settlement patterns that meet the requirements of the national planning framework, and which do not continue to facilitate new and unregulated ribbon development, allowing those people who want to move and settle in to Gaeltacht areas to do so. It is relevant to these amendments. One of the reasons we tabled these amendments was that if they were accepted, it would force those in local authority housing departments to have particular conversations. In the same way that the planning system is blind to many of these issues, our housing officials are, unfortunately and far too often, operating under extreme pressure to meet general needs and special needs in the context of housing and social and affordable housing.

I will make a final comment and will not come in again on this group. Given that the Minister is not accepting these amendments and in view of what he outlined, when he is working on the rural and Gaeltacht planning guidelines, it would be very valuable if he gave constructive consideration to how we utilise those funding streams alongside the guidelines. It could solve a large number of problems for many people and remove a great deal of conflict from the planning system.