Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)

While it is very important to have structures in place, we must not forget that there are situations where it is very useful to provide planning that might not always fit into the box. Only for the planning that was given in Monaghan to small industries on people's own farms, we would have very little industry today. There has been much talk about the hub towns and other things, but no industry has ever been provided in them to facilitate the houses that have been built on them. We need to be much more positive in how we deal with things as they happen.

One example of this is Moffatt engineering at Clontibret, which is a firm known worldwide and was set up in a farmer's back yard. The company is still there today and there is another company outside Monaghan as well. A bit of common sense allowed that to develop and if we went by today's plans, that would not happen. We need to be very careful that we do not throw out the baby with the bath water.

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