Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

What is rural community development? It is vision, which the Government seems to lack. It is infrastructure, which the Government has never invested in outside of the cities. It is water and sewerage services, broadband and ESB connections for industry in rural areas. It is compulsory purchase orders for vacant and derelict properties which are included in the results that we have for infrastructure. It is connectivity in the rural areas for working, for school, for commuting and for basic shopping. It is the right to build a house in the area from where one comes.

If one builds a house now in a rural area, one pays huge fees. What is on the list from the county council planning permission? It is a charge for infrastructure. That money does not go back into our areas, however. It goes back into areas where the Government wants more population.

If Covid has shown the Government anything, it has shown that it forgot to invest in rural areas. It has shown that it has put all investment into the likes of Dublin while making people in rural areas travel to Dublin, which in turn has poisoned the air there. The Government must invest in infrastructure in rural Ireland and change the 2040 plan which the previous Government voted to implement which will stop people building in their own areas. We must change the 2040 plan. The Government must wake up, get vision and listen to all the Independents who have been shouting it from the rooftops.

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