Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The heart of this issue is the question of building and sustaining rural communities. Successive Governments, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in particular, have failed abysmally in that. In my own County Meath, people cannot afford houses. The only way many of them can deliver them is if they build for themselves. I appreciate the policy in terms of transport-led development, building on nodes and urban centres, but the rural planning criteria in County Meath are having a devastating effect. My colleague on Meath County Council, Councillor Micheal Gallagher, has been very persistent and active on this. We are disappointed by the response of the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael parties locally. There need to be policies in place that ensure our rural communities are maintained and sustained. That goes for housing but also services and infrastructure, roads maintenance and repair, water infrastructure, broadband, general practitioners, gardaí and school transport. I am still dealing with a huge number of cases in respect of the lack of adequate school transport. There is such potential in our rural communities but it has been missed by a complete lack of vision from successive Governments, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in particular, and the regulatory and planning framework to go with that. This is the nub of the issue that needs to be addressed. It looks like Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are intent on continuing along the same failed path, going by the ongoing review of the national planning framework. Those are the fundamental issues that need to be addressed. We need to invest in our rural communities, not just in terms of housing but also in terms of services and infrastructure.

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