I have no axe to grind, but I have had rows with An Taisce about its Luddite approach to single house rural development. If hamlets and villages are to retain their life we must be very careful, practical and conservative in our approach. The best way to protect nature and the environment is to have people in it. The people who care most are those living in a particular area. It is a fact of nature that if you take a person out of their environment and put them into another environment they never properly adjust. The grey squirrel, which has got rid of all the red squirrels in Ireland, is a classic example of a mammal which was taken out of its own area. The same, in a different way, applies to human beings. The person who went to the local school, who knows the local patron saint, the local pattern day, is part of the local football club and is part of a second or third generation has a commitment to the area. It should be possible to ensure that any spatial strategy takes account of that.