Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to get the opportunity to talk about this proposed plan, and I hope it is only a proposed plan. First, anything I say to the Minister of State is not personal; it is purely based on the plan and its architects. We were told that the purpose of this plan was to take people out of Dublin and build up the rural part of the country. We were told also that it would benefit cities such as Waterford, Cork, Limerick and Galway but, as I see it, this is another Dublin plan. There is very little in it for any other part of the country. I will read it again, but I did not see Kerry mentioned in the plan once. That is what we have to put up with. The people of Kerry and the people of rural Ireland are entitled to live the best way they can and where they want to live. No one can make them live anywhere else against their will.

It is hard to highlight everything in the plan but there are different proposals and strategies in it. Page 92 refers to the location of homes. It states that future homes are required to be located where people have the best opportunities to access a high standard quality of life. It further states that they are to be located in places that can support sustainable development. Where are those places? It further states that places which support growth, innovation and the efficient provision of infrastructure and are accessible to a range of local services can encourage the use of public transport, walking, cycling and help tackle climate change.

The plan also refers to requirements to live in our cities and larger towns. We have to be very careful when we see this because planners will be told how to interpret it. It refers to areas where large-scale housing demand exists and where homes and appropriate supporting services can be delivered more efficiently and effectively at less cost to the State in the long run and still be located in our smaller towns, villages and rural areas including the countryside, but at an appropriate scale, that does not detract from the capacity of our larger towns and cities to deliver homes more sustainably. We are keeping our ear to the ground and we have been told that the new plan will direct local authorities to suggest that one-off houses cannot be built in rural areas other than when and where towns and villages are sufficiently built up. When will that happen? That is the trouble.

John Moran had a role in the Central Bank. It is no wonder the country went the way it did. When a fellow with a mind like his was involved, it is no wonder the thing went wallop. He says that-----

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