Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We live in towns that were not planned and suffered population overspill from Dublin. They suffered all kinds of consequences in trying to catch up. If we get this right, with the support of the House, there will be no catching up on bad planning as we will have good planning from the start. The money will follow the population to provide required services as people start to live in areas. It will not take ten, 20 or 30 years for them to come about.

As I stated, we must plan for an extra 600,000 jobs and at least 500,000 new homes. We must get that right. We must also plan for a doubling of the numbers in our communities aged over 65, as 1.3 million people will be over that age. We have to plan for the services and towns they need with respect to housing and health care, along with all the other services. People must have a choice to live in communities all their lives and not have to move away when they get a little older.

The people of this country expect politicians, whether they function at national, regional or local levels - we all have a role in this and must work together as much as possible - to put in place sensible and reasonable planning policies that not only address these major changes coming quickly towards us but also deliver lasting benefits as well. Our real job is to plan ahead to get the maximum benefit for everybody. This means putting in place a deliberate strategy - not business as usual but a disruptive strategy - that will see Ireland and its urban and rural places developed in harmony rather than in competition with each other. There is room for everybody to expand and we must do this properly.

The motion being countered by the Government suggests the national planning framework will weaken rural Ireland, which is wrong. I do not agree with that. The suggestion is dubious and it is completely and utterly erroneous.

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