Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the national planning framework. I welcome any attempts to future-proof infrastructure in this country. I am very disappointed, however, in reading the report. It is high on vision but it is almost like the report is detached from reality. I do not have long but I will give just one example. The report references the value and importance of the serviced sites scheme. I put it to the Minister of State that there is no serviced sites scheme in Mayo. Despite several attempts by many councillors there are none. You would not think that from reading the report.

Another point I wish to raise relates to the housing targets. We saw in 2018 that the same report underestimated the demand in housing. We see this again in this report. The Housing Commission has said that we need to build 60,000 houses. I wonder if this is purposely done given that we are so far off our targets. Is it purposely done to reduce the targets? The Housing Commission does not agree with the targets contained in this report.

The apprenticeship situation is a major issue. In order to build more houses and more infrastructure, we need manpower. Apprenticeships are mentioned once in the report. The reference is in the context of more collaboration around cross-Border apprenticeships. I have friends who have been waiting for years to be called to the next phase. We have made the apprenticeship system a second class citizen to the universities and yet we wonder why we cannot attract more people into trades, which we so desperately need. This report is meant to set out the blueprint-----

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