Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I object strongly to this being described as the national plan from now to 2040. It is not good enough to cover the next three or four years, not to mind the next 20 years. I am not signing my name to this or approving it as our plan because then Kerry local authority will tell us this is the plan as set out by the Government and these are the Members who backed it. I object to this being called a plan for the next 23 years.

IBEC constantly tells us that, compared with Europe, this country has the least number of infrastructure projects in train or even prepared for the go-ahead. We hear more about rolling out broadband. If it were a carpet they were rolling out, the whole of the island and the British Isles would be covered by now. Why is it not being done in a methodical fashion? Where it is rolled out, there are pockets of bad coverage within. People affected in these pockets are going mad because they think it has passed them by and they will never get broadband. I have raised this issue before with the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Naughten.

We do not have many rural transport services. Deputy Heydon spoke about 38 more rural link services across the country. The 38 services would not cater for Kerry alone. If Deputy Heydon thinks this will camouflage the Minister, Deputy Ross's, drink-driving Bill and offset the anger being meted out to those parties supporting it, it will not.

It is hard enough as it is for people who have ties with a rural area to get planning permission for a single-build house. Now we are hearing that they will have to have a financial link to where they want to build. That is unfair, particularly for people who might have to travel two hours to work from their locality. This is about housing and putting a roof over one's head. The people in question have a site, which is a large part of the cost of a house.

The Government is inclined to blame the local authorities for not zoning enough land. Over the past 12 months, we have asked the Department to allow Kerry County Council to zone extra lands in Killarney but it will not. It is the Department which is setting out the parameters for land zoning. The developer Michael O'Flynn, who knows what he is talking about, said recently that if not enough land is zoned, it will drag up the cost of houses. The Department needs to get into its head that this needs to be done. There is nothing wrong with more land being zoned, as it would create competition. If only one developer has his lands on one side of a town zoned, then he has a monopoly and can charge whatever he likes for houses on it. The Department has to recognise that. Blaming the local authorities is not correct.