Pat Casey (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I think the two Ministers for attending the committee this morning.

Those of us involved in local authorities in the past have been through regional, spatial, county and local area plans. In fairness, we have all lost any faith or hope in them that they would deliver. The public are beginning to not engage in them anymore because they are tired of public meetings about plans which do not deliver anything to them directly in the long term. The national planning framework is a high-level aspirational plan with no specifics. The Minister claimed he is aligning the national investment plan with it. However, without the specifics, it is hard to align it if one does not know where the shortfalls in critical infrastructure are. For example, the Wicklow county plan gave Arklow and other places population growths of 15,000 but they have no wastewater or water infrastructure in place. How can we align an investment plan without knowing the detail required and the weaknesses that exist?

There is a huge drive towards knowledge-based industries. With the housing crisis, we have identified a significant skills shortage in trades. We need to refocus on that part of the education system.

I spoke to Mr. Niall Cussen on rural areas at the last informal meeting we had. We can keep talking about rural areas and keep on giving out about one-off rural housing. However, if we cannot offer a rural dweller an alternative to live in towns and villages, we are actually wasting our time. Every one of our towns and villages has no capacity and they are not on Irish Water's radar because there is no economic return on them within that famous window of economic return. Where does this plan address the critical infrastructure required to develop our towns and villages?

I will probably be killed for raising the issue of the locals-only rule from Europe and its impact on one-off dwellings and houses in the countryside. This document keeps referring to an economic need to live in the countryside. I also believe there is a social part to that which needs to be acknowledged but it is not in this plan. Wicklow suffers from the impact of urbanisation on the demand for one-off rural housing. A person who genuinely needs to live in a rural area is the same as one who is not under urban influence. Why are we differentiating in that regard? In Wicklow, many people are ruled out for one-off rural housing because they do not have an economic need but might have a social need.

Public transport was mentioned earlier. I left home at 6:30 a.m. to get here for 9 a.m. Even though it is only 45 km away, we have a serious problem in Wicklow, especially on the N11 and the M50. The problem equally relates to job creation. If we can create further jobs in neighbouring counties around Dublin, it could eliminate that blockage.

Will the Minister of State give us an update on the Office of the Planning Regulator, OPR, and specifically on the objectives of the statutory requirements for spatial and transport planning? We in Fianna Fáil have submitted an amendment that ties the transport issue into planning matters.