Ulick Burke (Fine Gael)

One third of the population lives in rural Ireland and the greater proportion of them are on the western seaboard. It is in these areas that we have our greatest problems with regard to planning. Can the Minister stand over what he has presented as other than a pre-election gimmick and say that these guidelines will make a change and make it easier for people in rural Ireland to get planning permission? That is the problem in a nutshell. Can the Minister tell us if there is anything in what he said which is not already in our county plans?