Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Matthews makes a fair point. We also need to take into account, and we all accept the necessity of, the national broadband plan, NBP, roll-out. National Broadband Ireland, NBI, has stated that if this is to be accelerated, it will have an absolute requirement for resource allocation as regards planning permissions and road opening licences, particularly. NBI is referring to planners and engineers and said that it will need that sort of resource to be guaranteed. That is even with the streamlining that has occurred with the section 254 guidelines.

We also need to take into account that sometimes we have the local development plan, the tail-end of which we have going on in County Louth at the minute, and we have an element of separation between the Office of the Planning Regulator, OPR, the local authority planners and even the officials at Department level. That needs to be streamlined. We have to finally have a real conversation on what we can provide for rural communities to provide sustainable communities and housing for those who live in those areas.

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