Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have two brief, high-level points. This is not the same discussion as we had on the previous days, particularly because the national planning framework has a completely different statutory status in the hierarchy of plans. Therefore, it would be impossible for somebody to have a view of these types of amendments with respect to development plans and to take a different view with respect to the national planning framework. They are not the same. The Minister is right in that they are dealing with the same issue but it is not the same discussion. Therefore, simply repeating the commitments he made the last time does not address the point fully, although I respect that he raised it.

The second point is that the national planning framework, as it currently stands, does have high-level SPPRs that relate to very specific geographical areas. If you take the rural housing section of it, for example, it does not cover the entire State. It covers very specific areas including both countryside areas not under pressure from urban areas and countryside areas under pressure. The whole point of a national planning framework is to set out at a high level, the strategic objectives and the special planning policy requirements, which are then applied, as appropriate, to the different areas.

For me, the strongest way to support, promote, protect and encourage the use of the Irish language in Gaeltachts and to have alignment between planning policy and the language plans is by putting it in the national planning framework, in the most appropriate manner possible. Statutorily, that plan sits above everything else. Everything else has to be consistent with that. Contrary to the Minister's view - he is entitled to have a different view to those of us on this side of the House - placing some level of commitment around planning and language promotion consistent with the language plans is absolutely appropriate in the national planning framework. That said, we can have a discussion about what is the most appropriate language to do so.