Mr. Christy Leyden:

I am really impressed by what Free Market is saying. It makes so much sense. To return to our own situation, we were extremely lucky. Coincidentally, the Chair of this committee, Deputy Carey, in his time as a councillor in Clare, brought in a plan in Clarecastle for 2007, just before the bypass was developed. We have stuck with that plan. I have specifically mentioned that we need to stick with strategic plans at all times rather than going in different directions. Several different groups have given us different options. We have tried to keep to strategic plans. Free Market's ideas make a great deal of sense to those of us on the ground. We are doing stuff from the ground up without a full knowledge of what is happening elsewhere. We would love to see areas with similar demographics coming together with standard data collected. That would make a lot of sense to those of us involved in this area.

An architect designed our plan in 2007. I am 100% behind Ms Delaney and Mr. Lord; we need architects for creative design in order to start building sustainable villages. We need to start using sites differently. I agree with what Senator Coffey is saying in that regard. We can reuse stuff. There is a massive gap in Clarecastle as a result of the loss of Roche. We are talking about hubs, and I am glad they were mentioned. We may not get another Roche but a Roche somewhere else may allow the people of Clarecastle to work remotely. We have six or seven brown buildings - I believe that is the classification - in the middle of our small village. That is unbelievable. They are all derelict. All their doors have been closed for ten or 15 years. We must go back to town centres, as our colleagues from Free Market mentioned. They made so much sense to those of who try to do community planning from the ground up. I am delighted that we are present to listen to that information.