Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta Matthews agus an Teachta Ó Cathasaigh. I know how hard they and other committee members worked on Committee Stage of this Bill. I tried to assist a few different times, voting as a substitute and so on. They did a lot of hard work. It is very long legislation and, as the Minister will know, this stage in the Dáil is being quite rushed.

Community gardens and community facilities are very important. I listened to the múinteoir, an Teachta Ó Cathasaigh, and what he said was very interesting. He is right; in any school I have visited where there is a little school garden, that garden is of enormous value to the holistic education of the children. There are some great community allotments in Clonmel, Tipperary town and many other areas in Tiobraid Árann theas. They are very well used and very well supported but there is uncertainty around them. They are normally on a bit of waste land or a bit of council land that is not being used at the moment but then, as Deputy Ó Snodaigh and others have said, they can be lost. The council can decide the land is needed and the people using the facilities have to move away. Sometimes, those facilities are not replaced. There is much work involved. The people, the families and the community members involved take great pride in these open spaces they have nurtured so lovingly and from which they have reaped some fresh vegetables, potatoes and God knows what else. The early spuds are not going to be that early this year but, nonetheless, these people work hard at them. I support and would welcome this amendment to the legislation.

On the issue of sharing space as regards once-off rural housing, roads and facilities, Deputy Ó Cathasaigh admitted that you cannot live in these places without a car. Most of us come from such areas. I have eight children, five daughters and three sons. They all have to drive cars and that is a problem. There is no public transport. We have to look at that. The Office of the Planning Regulator forced the local authority to dezone an awful lot of land in towns in Tipperary this year. That was a retrograde step. That land needs to be zoned because people cannot build in the country and not enough space is being zoned in towns. I know there was a scourge of too much zoned land for years but that was then and this is now.

These are different times. Regarding the cycle lanes-----

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