Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I want our country to do better on climate change. The national planning framework will not reference capital projects. It is not its role to do so, rather it is the role of the capital plan. The capital plan will make provision for how we can do better in responding to the challenge of climate change and that is something we need to do.

As the Deputy is well aware, the long-term response to all of this is how we better plan and organise our country. A major element of the national planning framework at the moment is how to ensure that cities are developed in a more sustainable way. If we get sustainable development and higher densities of population in our cities, that facilitates, in turn, the roll-out of more public transport projects. In turn, that facilitates the delivery of a better kind of planning to ensure the mistakes of the past are not repeated in the coming years.

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