Results 3,121-3,140 of 9,814 for speaker:Steven Matthews

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Provision of Community Growing Spaces in Ireland: Community Gardens Ireland (1 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: I am out of time so I will stop. However, we will have a second round of questions and we have more to come back on.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Provision of Community Growing Spaces in Ireland: Community Gardens Ireland (1 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: I thank Deputy O'Callaghan. I note the Senators are in the Seanad, so I will move to the second Sinn Féin slot with Deputy Ó Broin and then to the Fianna Fáil slot in that order. I thought I saw Deputy Gould on the screen.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Provision of Community Growing Spaces in Ireland: Community Gardens Ireland (1 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: He was on the screen but I do not see him at the moment. Deputy Ó Broin may wish to take this slot or let Deputy McAuliffe go first.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Provision of Community Growing Spaces in Ireland: Community Gardens Ireland (1 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: Does Mr. McCormack wish to comment on that? It is an interesting point Deputy McAuliffe made about the legislation. If the legislation is too confining in respect of the management and use of the land, I can see how that might stifle the creativity and communal aspect. On the other hand, if the legislation is clear on the provision of those spaces, that will be a different matter. One...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Provision of Community Growing Spaces in Ireland: Community Gardens Ireland (1 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: We have managed to mention most of the community gardens and allotments in Dublin, so I will now give Deputy Gould an opportunity, in the interests of balanced regional growth, to talk about Cork.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Provision of Community Growing Spaces in Ireland: Community Gardens Ireland (1 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: There are many excellent public representatives in Wicklow and many of them are working on this issue. I believe there could be a resolution. It is not just me; many of us are working on it. The garden has been there for a long time.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Provision of Community Growing Spaces in Ireland: Community Gardens Ireland (1 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: I wish to let Ms Foreman in. I will then let the Deputy back in. It is only him, Deputy Ó Broin and me remaining and I believe that Deputy Ó Broin wants to contribute on the third round, as do I.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Provision of Community Growing Spaces in Ireland: Community Gardens Ireland (1 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: I might continue that point before calling Deputy Ó Broin. We have lost touch with biodiversity. There is the Tidy Towns notion that towns need to be neat, trim and tidy but I believe it should be "Wild Biodiverse Towns". We have a ways to go just yet, though. We have become detached from food to a certain extent - we have lost that relationship. Food is now something that is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Provision of Community Growing Spaces in Ireland: Community Gardens Ireland (1 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: Let us tease that out. The council tells people that they can do it if they find a suitable bit of land. That is exactly what I have heard before. People go searching but they cannot find any, or if they return with three or four options, they are told that those lands have been earmarked for something else or the council is not quite sure what it is doing with that road over the next 20...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Provision of Community Growing Spaces in Ireland: Community Gardens Ireland (1 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: In all our localities, we know of little spaces, patches of ground and various sites that would be great for growing. When the land is found, what other sort of resistance comes back? Is there resistance from residents in the area who say they do not want allotments there? What has the experience been?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Provision of Community Growing Spaces in Ireland: Community Gardens Ireland (1 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: It is very important. There has been a lot of talk of energy resilience in the past couple of days and weeks, but that kind of food resilience is also an issue. I am not saying people will be able to feed their entire family from their allotment over the year, but there is the healthy growing aspect of it, people growing their own food and bringing it home. There is a certain sort of-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Provision of Community Growing Spaces in Ireland: Community Gardens Ireland (1 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: It does. Even if it does not, people think so anyway because there is an inherent, basic thing about people growing their own food, bringing it home, cooking it and eating it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Provision of Community Growing Spaces in Ireland: Community Gardens Ireland (1 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: Deputy Ó Broin made some very good suggestions in his contribution and I have been jotting down some notes of recommendations arising in the discussion. There is the affordability perspective as well. We have spoken about local authorities having public land and we have said that when we densify, we should have green open spaces. Maybe we could start calling them green growing spaces...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Provision of Community Growing Spaces in Ireland: Community Gardens Ireland (1 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: It is an interesting angle. There are many green spaces and people with land that is not zoned on the outskirts of town. From a practical perspective, they need water supplied but what else is needed? Do people require storage and sheds? Can these areas operate without that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Provision of Community Growing Spaces in Ireland: Community Gardens Ireland (1 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: Definitely. I have a final point. The witnesses have said there are 100 community gardens and allotments in the country. What helps to get political momentum going is lobbying and contacting councillors, especially around development plans, as well as Deputies and Senators. When public opinion pushes in a direction, politics tends to follow. I have no doubt the group would get good...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Provision of Community Growing Spaces in Ireland: Community Gardens Ireland (1 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: There are probably many people operating out there who are afraid to stick up their head in case somebody wonders about a community garden that nobody knew about. I will go briefly through some points. I can put together something. Deputy Ó Broin is right that we can work on this as a committee. We are looking at the planning code and process and there is an ongoing assessment of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Provision of Community Growing Spaces in Ireland: Community Gardens Ireland (1 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: Sure. Perhaps the committee can help with that. I do not know what role we would have. The consultation was about what should be contained in county development plans. Local authorities should have waiting lists.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Provision of Community Growing Spaces in Ireland: Community Gardens Ireland (1 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: A section in policy, whether it is a county development plan or another policy, should be for community gardens and allotments.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Provision of Community Growing Spaces in Ireland: Community Gardens Ireland (1 Mar 2022)

Steven Matthews: Below that we would have communities, so community growing.