Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I might take the Deputy up on that offer. We can go surfing together in Strandhill.

The national planning framework gives us the way forward. We need better balanced regional development. There is excess development on the east coast, especially in the greater Dublin area, and we need areas such as Sligo, Cork, Galway, Waterford and Limerick to grow as a counterbalance to that. The best way for Sligo to grow is for it to switch and promote sustainable mobility in order that there will be a high-quality local environment such that the town will work. I look forward to seeing what we can do to make that happen.

In towns such as Carrick-on-Shannon, there is a fundamental choice. These are incredible 19th century market towns, or older in many instances, and restoring them and bringing life back into their centres would be one way of tackling our housing crisis as well as helping us to meet our environmental targets. The best way of doing that will involve removing as much traffic as possible in order that life can be brought back in. The towns that do that, whether Carrick-on-Shannon or elsewhere, will thrive.

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