Ms Kathryn Meghen:

One area where it is important for local authorities to be involved is in creating the towns and villages where people want to live. We can talk about high density living but we cannot force people into living in certain areas. In most towns and villages throughout the country, people prefer to live on the outskirts, in a house with front and back gardens. In the case of towns such as Clonakilty, Skibbereen, Westport and Enniscorthy, a municipal architect has been put in charge of curating the development of the urban fabric of the town or village, creating somewhere that is vibrant, safe and has mixed tenure with a mixed demographic. People then want to come and live in the towns and villages, and residents are happy for high density housing developments to be built in the core.

We have carried out aerial studies of some towns. The backland development potential in most towns and villages is incredible but we cannot force people to live there. There has to be quality, which is why the urban fabric is so important. One simple aspect in many towns is that the supermarket has been kept in the centre. People park on the village outskirts and walk in, which we are all capable of doing. We have to make sensible choices about how we redevelop towns and villages.