Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am genuinely making these comments respectfully, as I accept the Deputies are raising these issues because they passionately believe in fixing planning and housing in rural Ireland, as I do. In fact, the Bill will not affect An Taisce's funding, because the funding it gets from the Government is not for its planning work. It gets no direct funding from the State for any of its planning work or advocacy, it gets it for very specific programmes. For example, it runs the annual national spring clean programme, which is funded by the State. The programme involves 500,000 people, and many of us in this room participate in it. Therefore, if the intention behind this Bill is to fix a broken planning system, all I am respectfully saying is that my read of the Bill is it does not do that. For that reason, our focus is elsewhere.

If the Bill were to become law, it would not result in any change in the planning system, because An Taisce does not make decisions. I accept that it divides opinion. In particular in rural Ireland people have very strong views about it. They are entitled to those. Ultimately, decisions are made by our planning authorities. I am particularly taken by Deputy O'Donoghue's remarks because they get to the nub of the problem: we have two sets of planning rules. We have mandatory ministerial guidelines in the national planning framework and we have the development plans. So much of the difficulty and confusion in our planning process is caused by those. Unfortunately, the solution to that is not in this Bill. It is about ensuring we have absolute alignment in our planning rules, so that they are fair and consistent and they give people a real opportunity to be able to live and contribute to their communities, whether rural countryside, villages, towns or cities in a way that is sustainable for everyone.

Sinn Féin's focus is on trying to fix the problems. The Minister of State, Deputy Dillon, has direct responsibility for this area. I am sure he has seen the draft rural planning guidelines, as the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, did before him, and the previous Minister of State, Deputy English, did before him. We very clearly call on the Government to publish the draft guidelines and let us see them, consult on them and put them in place.

We must fund local authorities to deliver social and affordable homes on a large scale in rural areas. Not a single affordable home has been delivered in the Minister of State's own county under the Government's affordable housing scheme. I suggest it is the same in rural Tipperary, rural Limerick and rural Kerry. I urge him to work with Deputies who have a passion for ensuring that rural communities can thrive and survive.

I say, respectfully, that in addition to this Bill not addressing the challenges, it takes the heat off where it needs to be - the failure of successive governments to give young people in rural communities in particular a chance to live and contribute to the place where they are from. Until the Government changes its planning laws and funding priorities, these problems will continue.

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