Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am saying that what we have committed to doing is to change the wording and I will reflect the social need as well. That will address the concerns of Deputy Healy-Rae and many others. That is what will be in it.

I explained to Deputy Michael Collins the issue relating to people supporting local employment in an area. Planning allows for that. It applies to this plan and other plans. Let us suppose a person is not from an area but wants to build in the area. If he shows that the proposal is related to a need to be on that land for business, then it is allowed. In most cases, that is what happens. As I said at the start - Deputy Healy-Rae was not here at the time – for the past three or four years, and probably for longer, more than 50% of the houses in the country have been one-off rural houses.