Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. I am conscious of my time here.

What I am hearing here is good news. I would say, to Deputy Bruton's point, a number of towns across Galway come under the town centres first project and they are advancing really well with local communities on board. Clifden is one of those.

What I am not hearing in the Minister's response is the transport piece of that. Compact growth is a key part of it. Under the NPF, there is a requirement around compact growth and ending that sprawl but there are also a number of projects, for instance, roads projects, not all of which can go ahead if we are to reduce by 20% our kilometres travelled because planning has an impact. I will refer back - it is not necessarily a live matter because An Bord Pleanála admitted that it did not take the climate action plan into consideration - to an obligation there on planning to look at these projects as they come to it and to say whether they are in line with Ireland's reduction in emissions. Other countries, for example, Wales, have diverted funding from those kind of projects into such projects as compact growth that the Minister mentioned.