David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I support my colleague and the Minister on the great work is going on. The Minister came to Midleton a little while ago and told us of the local infrastructure housing activation fund, LIHAF. That is now complete and thousands of houses will be built on that particular site in Waterrock, which is fantastic. It is really good.

There are two small issues I will bring to the Minister's attention to get his reaction to them. The first concerns the road infrastructure in east Cork, which is not up to standard. The problem we have now is that with all the fantastic building going on all over the place with houses, thanks to the Minister, his Department and the Government as a whole, the road infrastructure is creaking. I brought up with the Minister for Transport, Deputy Ryan, in the House yesterday the need to upgrade the roads. No constraints are being put on the building because of the road infrastructure.

The second issue is high density housing with no green areas. This is causing concern. As the former Minister of State with the Department of Justice with responsibility for youth justice I am concerned about where are young people going to play. I ask that the Minister to make sure there are green areas and play areas. In Midleton we are trying to find space for an athletics track but cannot. We have thousands of young people coming in, which is great to see, but we need to keep an eye on that as well so there is infrastructure and playing fields for them in order that they do not get into bother.

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