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

Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice has asked for clarity on what the Government means in its 2040 plan. The plan says that one-off housing may still be built if it does not detract from urban centres. People need clarity on this. As Deputy Fitzmaurice said, the interpretation is that if so many houses are to be built in a county then urban areas may use the bulk of the allocation. Where will this leave people with their own sites in rural areas? Where will it leave rural Ireland? It would be devastated worse than it is currently.

This has already manifested itself in Kerry. A couple was granted planning permission by Kerry County Council. Lo and behold, one of the serial objectors who has caused mayhem right around the country appealed the decision to An Bord Pleanála. After due time the planning permission was turned down on the grounds that the applicants lived too far from their place of work, which was 6 km.

Members are aware that farming for many today is part-time and people have to travel some 20, 30 or 50 miles to teaching jobs and to different kinds of work. This is the nature of employment. One has to travel to go to work today. I hope the policy will not deny people who get some or a greater part of their income in one area from living in the rural area where they were brought up. This is the fabric of their lives - where their parents are and on their own farms. They may want to be near their parents to see after them in their twilight years. Grandparents often have a great input with grandchildren. They could be the minders of the grandchildren while the parents are trying to secure an income to supplement or maintain the household as a viable unit. I hope the Government is not going to try to change this. The word is that this is what the Government is trying to do with this plan.

What direction has the Government or the Department given to the local authorities? Will this planning regulator supersede our county development plans, which our local authority members have worked so hard on to put together? They put a great amount of effort into those plans over the years and the decades. The elected local authority members' views were adhered to in the subsequent county development plans. Will the new planning regulator have a superior role to or supersede the county manager? Time will tell, but Ireland has not had a good result from regulators up to now. The energy regulator has ensured the gas project in north Kerry has remained at standstill for many years.

See this speech in context