Camillus Glynn (Fianna Fail)

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. I welcome the guidelines and I commend the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Cullen, on introducing them. It is important to understand why they have been introduced. I was a member of a local authority for 24 years up to my resignation five or six months ago. I have been involved in the compilation of a number of county development plans. Difficulties with the interpretation of this matter have resulted in the need for these guidelines. When my local authority made a very clear statement as to what we would like in the context of rural one-off housing, it was the interpretation of our plan that resulted in the Minister speaking here today on the guidelines he recently published.

The local authority also had a number of meetings to address the matter such was the frustration and the indignity of the relevant members. While I cannot speak for other local authorities, I can speak for Westmeath County Council. A number of measures were introduced and, to be fair to the management, things improved. However, while a step was taken in the right direction, there is still a considerable way to go.

As somebody who lives in a town but who was born, bred and reared in a country area I can go back to the townland and parish just outside Kinnegad where my mother was born and reared, where 25 farming families lived in a very remote area. However, one would need the Time Team in that area and others around the country to find evidence of habitation. We must ask ourselves what is rural planning and who drives it? The answer is that people drive rural planning.I am sick and tired of the pious platitudesand the craw-thumping of certain self-styled environmentalists who tell people who were born in a rural area that they cannot live there. The message to them from the Minister and this Seanad group is that they can. Someone mentioned common sense and courtesy which is so pertinent, but when certain planners consider certain issues neither common sense nor courtesy obtains. However, that is the exception, not the rule.

Rural areas are in decline. One has only to count the number of GAA clubs that have had to amalgamate in order bring out one team and the number of hurling clubs, soccer clubs and community games areas that have amalgamated just to remain in existence. It is an indication of what is happening in rural Ireland. The cause is lack of planning. Churches, post offices and schools are closing. Need I go on?

I appreciate constructive criticism. There is no doubt that it is pertinent to good governance. However, destructive criticism only demonstrates a bankruptcy of alternative proposals. In this case the Government is damned if it does and damned if it does not. There were calls ad nauseam from both sides of the House for the Minister to come here to address the issue of planning. That has been done.