Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit faoin méad atá ráite aige. It does not address the issue. This issue has been going on for nearly 20 years. There are TDs across different political divides who raised this issue with the National Roads Authority before it was subsumed into TII. The authorities are not budging. There is a blanket policy here. I understand the rationale for some of it in terms of road safety but we have planners and road sections of the planning division where they look at braking distance and vision lines and decide whether it is safe and appropriate for a house to be built in that area, allowing for access onto a road. TII takes a completely uncompromising approach, which says if a development is coming onto the N56, which is the spine of Donegal, it is not allowed planning. It is sterilising land right across the area. We have major issues with depopulation. I believe in vibrancy in our rural communities and our Gaeltacht communities. I want to see young people being able to build on their own land. We have a policy at national level that is frustrating that and causing serious damage. I am asking Government to reach out to TII and to say that it needs to review its policy. This blanket, sledge-hammer approach is not fair to the people of Donegal. Of course, road safety has to be at the heart of it. We know in Donegal how many people have lost their lives on the road, without a doubt, but blanket approach to this policy is not acceptable.

Back in July, Donegal County Council submitted a proposal to enable what it described as the continued survival of our rural and Gaeltacht communities to TII, to allow where necessary appropriate and limited access to the N56 in respect of planning permissions. TII is not listening. We do have a change in terms of speed limits but that is a separate issue. What we need is a change in policy, a more appropriate policy in respect of TII. It is not acceptable where the whole west and south of County Donegal is serviced by this main road and proximity to the main road does not allow people to build on their own land. It has to stop. Will the Minister of State intervene with TII today?

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