Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

I regret that my colleague from the Green Party has left the Chamber because I would like to engage in a detailed debate about rural settlement patterns. I have read the Labour Party and the Green Party policies, and they are entitled to their view, but they should be clear about what they want. They want the people of rural Ireland who are not involved in agriculture to live in towns or villages. Perhaps they are right, but I do not agree with them. I believe the townlands of Ireland are the towns of Ireland, and that most people in rural Ireland associate with those townlands.

My colleague, Deputy McCormack, will know what I am talking about because he is familiar with what we are doing in terms of canvassing, but we do not canvass by towns, we canvass by townland. We organise our station masses by townland. We divide everything by the townlands and then we are told to forget them, that they do not exist. I do not agree with that view, but other parties are entitled to hold it, although I am a little curious which view will dominate when Fine Gael, Labour and the Green Party get into power. We will leave that to another day.

See this speech in context