Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)

I know the Department of housing has a huge amount on its plate in addressing the housing crisis but to be honest, it has always been very clear to me that updating these planning guidelines to make developers provide appropriate crèche facilities in new estates has never been a priority for the Department. In the last Government, I got plenty of excuses about why the Department had not done it yet. It had to wait for the new planning Bill - well, that is done now. It had to wait for new planning regulations - it has had a year to pass those. Resolving this issue cannot wait any longer. There are going to be tens of thousands of houses built in the coming years; there must be to address the housing crisis. If we get these guidelines improved, they can contribute to the delivery of thousands of new childcare spaces. The developers are not going to do this themselves and to be honest, the Department of housing is not going to do it itself. It is going to be up to the Minister and she may have to drag the Department of housing kicking and screaming to the table here. Can she give us a clear timeline of when we will see these new planning guidelines published, and when will we see local authorities implement them?

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