Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Danny Healy-Rae. I will ask that the points the Deputy has made are fed into the consideration being given to the Minister for the updated rural housing guidelines, which are currently being prepared by the Department of housing. The draft rural housing guidelines set out the relevant planning criteria to be applied in local authority development plans for rural housing and that is based on the high-level policy framework set out by the national planning framework. We will have a new national planning framework later this year.

In relation to the other issue specific to Kenmare, obviously that local area plan now will go through the various process that I outlined in my earlier answer.

I hope those two processes, both the rural housing guidelines and the Kenmare municipal district local area plan, can address some of the issues that the Deputy has brought to the Dáil today.

See this speech in context