Mr. David O'Connor:

I can come in here with a few points to endorse what has been said. It would be a good idea to review the targets. When the national planning framework, NPF, was released, the targets seemed ambitious. I thought many of them were simply unachievable, especially for the more rural towns and villages. I thought we would never do that because we would never have, first, that type of public investment and, second, what was being called for, which was more or less a migration back to these smaller towns. Covid has proved us all wrong on that and that has been very welcome. Let us review the targets, even if it is 40% in cities and 50% outside urban areas. A lot of that is in smaller towns and villages. If it is reviewed, importantly, it must be tied into those provisions within Housing for All we have mentioned, particularly the land value capture and the urban development zones, and the public investment through Project Tosaigh and the Croí Cónaithe fund to activate those sites that otherwise will not be activated and to regenerate the public spaces to make the towns more attractive so people will want to go there. It should be tied into Housing for All and we should make sure to hot-wire that public investment, because otherwise it simply will not happen.

Deputy Ó Broin has alluded to the fact the issue of compact development is really an issue of affordability. There are some interesting studies by Professor Patrick Le Galès. As people become higher income and more middle class, they start to move out, but as they become higher income again and upper middle class, they start to move back in. People do not want to move away. They want to move in and live with other people, but it is simply a question of affordability. Affordable housing, and activating it through the Land Development Agency and helping local authorities to deliver housing where it is needed, is going to be key. Then, if we are developing the smaller rural towns and villages, it is to connect these places. It is almost like regional BusConnects type programmes. The connecting Ireland strategy is very important there as well.