Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for the comprehensive nature of the reply. Like my colleague, Deputy McLoughlin, I wish to inquire as to the extent to which the national planning strategy will come under the Minister's microscope. For example, Professor Caulfield has referred many times to the depopulation of rural Ireland and lack of footfall and, as a result, the lack of opportunity in terms of job creation and interest in rural Ireland. I refer to the quality and extent of services required to retain the population in rural Ireland and the degree to which local authorities are prepared to co-operate in terms of accommodating, by way of planning permission, the indigenous population of rural Ireland without which footfall can never improve.

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