Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy has raised a fair point, although some planning permissions do get through in west Cork, as the Deputy acknowledges. I think the guidelines do need some review, especially concerning people on farms and the children of farming communities, to maintain a sustainable community in certain areas. This is particularly the case with the improvements in technology, wastewater and so on. Again, on the other side of the coin, if we have too much of this, then we will have what happened in Storm Éowyn, where many people in very remote areas were bereft of services. It does, therefore, create challenges as well for our communications system and electricity grid. We cannot ignore the implications. I know the Deputy is not suggesting this, but if we had a free-for-all situation, then we would have fairly significant challenges emerging fairly quickly after that.

See this speech in context