Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

If that is the biggest blow the Opposition can wield and it does not listen to me, it can forget about it. We have not been afraid to innovate to suit new circumstances. Our urban renewal policies have reopened our cities and town centres as places in which to live. We have encouraged the provision of higher residential densities in our urban cores to make better use of the available land.

In my first year in office I introduced the Planning and Development (Amendment) Act 2002 to ensure that the innovative provisions under Part V of that Act had the necessary flexibility to deliver on the promise of those provisions.

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