Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for those follow-up questions. There are opportunities now to open up parts of the country that we feared might have been closed forever.

Those opportunities are not the result of the emergency alone. The national planning framework that we agreed included that sort of spatial planning and getting people back to parts of the country that we feared were, and indeed were, in decline. The broadband plan that we brought forward was very much a part of that, intending to connect every part of the country so that every child could have the same opportunities regardless of where he or she lived. I think that, during the Covid-19 emergency, people are reflecting on some of the choices that they have made. Before the crisis, during the general election campaign, people were talking about quality of life issues and the time it took to get from where they live to where they work. The new focus on remote working has offered another opportunity to look at those things.

We absolutely want to make sure that things around waste water, clean water or planning guidelines do not get in the way of building houses while, at the same time, ensuring that we develop in a responsible way. I know that the Deputy was not implying that we do it irresponsibly and he is right that the guidelines in place are old and date from 2005. They are in a process of being reviewed and renewed at the moment. We hope that process will come to a conclusion shortly and that involves consultation at the EU level. There is also new thinking under way. Without getting into the politics of the general election, ideas were being proposed at that time which might now have a new urgency because of what has happened in this crisis. I welcome that because it may lend a hand to some of the objectives that the Deputy was setting out.

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