Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

It is difficult because the Minister is being pulled in three different directions by the questions. As well as giving nudges to workers to move down the country, which is vital, the Irish word that stands out to me is "fite fuaite", which rolls off the tongue better than "policy coherence". We need individual policy actors to work together. If we look to get people into our rural towns and villages, we have quality of life in spades, but we need housing solutions and, as Deputy Ó Muimhneacháin suggested, we need to tackle vacancy in housing. We need place-making, good quality public realm and services, including good schools, good water infrastructure and good public transport options.

The Our Rural Future document goes a long way towards that. I look forward to seeing the town centres first policy document which I know the Department is having input on. We need all these policy objectives to come together to unlock the potential in our rural towns and villages.

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