Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the Chairman that this is a very important point. I come from Knocknaheeny, a built area that is being regenerated at the moment. I went to my first regeneration meeting in September 2000. Some 20 years later, we are halfway through the regeneration, trying to fix problems that were created when we moved in there 47 years ago. It is vital when building communities that we build sustainable ones and that we do it the right way round. We put in the infrastructure and the supports, schools, crèches, shopping centres and youth clubs because we have spent 20 years fixing problems, many of which should not have been there to start with. Returning to the Chairman’s point on buildings and standards, when I speak to older people and people with disabilities, this is a significant issue. In a country such as ours this is something that we should be aware of and we should not have these problems. I agree that it is very important that these be included.