Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I want to support what the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, has said. It is a key issue and a target for the Government to try to resolve this issue once and for all, and make conditions better for women to participate in local politics because that is the main feeder into national politics. If we do that and increase the number of women representatives in local government, we will thereby increase the number of women who are elected to the Thirty-fourth Dáil and subsequent Dáileanna. It is very important. We have established the committee, as I alluded to in my opening remarks, and most of the political parties and Independents are represented on it. We are aiming to formulate a set of proposals that will result in meaningful maternity leave. There is sometimes a view going around that we can change a regulation and that will be sufficient. However, I want women to use it. I want a proposal that is workable. It is very important that women will have the administrative support and that they will not feel under pressure if there is a very important vote in the council and it could be very close, and the question arises should they participate in it, and they may be under pressure by their community to do so. This needs to be carefully evaluated. I greatly value the time of the group of women councillors, who have obviously very busy lives and portfolios, but who give that time to the Department.

I acknowledge there has been no update of the rural planning guidelines since the sustainable rural guidelines in 2005. We are working in the Department to draft a successor to that document. Obviously, we have a number of decisions like the Flemish decree, which have challenged how we go about meeting local needs in the 31 development plans up and down the country. I acknowledge it is an area that gets a huge amount of oxygen. Members of the committee can look at the Office of the Planning Regulator annual report every year, which publishes the statistics on one-off housing, in particular in terms of the percentage approved in each local authority area. It is upwards of 80%, and 90% in some instances, the point being that there has to be a threshold somewhere along the line. I will look for the advice of the committee as well as the political system to deliver on this. There has to be a threshold somewhere along the line for sustainable planning.