Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy knows, the Government puts a lot of store on this new developing national plan. The technical term is the national planning framework. We attempted to do this only once before as a country with the national spatial strategy which did not work out too well. We are in a consultation process at the moment. I have already been to Sligo. I was in Ballymun yesterday. I will be in Cork on Friday and we are going to Waterford, Athlone and Galway. There will also be a second meeting in Dublin. We will try to build consensus across political parties as well as across multiple stakeholders that have an interest in what Ireland should look like in ten and 20 years' time. Sustainability and climate change will be a big part of that as will how people move around, where they live and, in particular, urban environments that have not been developed appropriately over the past 20 years. The Deputy will have an opportunity to input into that in a very direct way.

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