Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I did my best to read through the report. I have two minutes so I cannot do it justice, but I have certainly read it. I would like to welcome it but I cannot. When you look at it, the words, such as "sustainability", are good, but you then realise it is business as usual. It is significant that in a few days' time we will - I will not say celebrate - recall that we declared a climate and biodiversity emergency on 10 May 2019 and there is absolutely no indication that the Government realises the transformational action that is required.

On housing, the Department's press release states that the Government will accelerate housing delivery. I welcome that. However, as other speakers said, the Government will accelerate housing delivery on the basis of a model that has proven to be completely wrong and has led to a housing crisis. This is in addition, and I do not want to personalise this at all, to using the man from NAMA, which in itself as an entity is a major part of the housing problem, and not realising that it has created, if not a monster, then something that is totally geared towards keeping house prices high. The Government is now going to take that person and put him in charge as the housing tsar. It could not be more bizarre. It is a whole jigsaw of pieces on housing without an overall picture.

I will mention transport in Galway city, which is one of the five cities destined to grow in a sustainable manner, with 50% of that growth to be within the footprint of the city. That is all very welcome. However, there is not a single commitment to a light rail for Galway to lift the traffic off the road. There is no analysis of the lack of regional development within the county and region, including no sewage treatment plant in Barna. The major siphon carrying the sewage under the River Corrib is in imminent danger of collapse, according to an engineer's report. There is no commitment to a sewage treatment plant on the east side of the city. There is no commitment to regional development, although there is an acknowledgement that the region has been demoted.

Three paragraphs are given over to the Irish language. This confirms the mindset of a Government that thinks the Irish language is for learners and is an addition, instead of realising there is a serious emergency in every single Gaeltacht because of the lack of housing.

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