Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The issue is critically important. The Minister did not answer the part of the question about how public service reform would dovetail with the national spatial strategy in the future. I fully understand it is part of the role of the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. We have a difficult situation to deal with and a dispersed pattern of settlement. We do not have an equal starting point. It is important that such a relationship is developed in order that whatever mistakes have been made in the past will not be made in the future owing to a lack of forward planning. Adequate attention must be paid to demographic change.

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